In this article we explore the role of conscription and citizens’ willingness to defend the state in Israel and Finland. Focusing on civil-military relations from a historical point of view, we concentrate on government-led efforts to create, cultivate, and maintain particular public attitudes toward national defense in both countries. Governments in both Israel and Finland utilize military conscription, as well as direct and indirect narratives of civic duty, to cultivate and maintain positive attitudes toward conscription and the willingness to defend. Despite significant differences stemming from each country’s unique geostrategic location, history, and security challenges, we find a shared tendency in both to frame, endorse, and sustain the mass mobilization of their citizens for mandatory military service.
The use of military force is an excellent example of how the decision-making process has traditionally been carried out by the executive. However, the role of parliamentary decision-making in this area has gradually emerged as a topic for constitutional discussion in the house of commons.The decision to go to war in Iraq in 2002−3 is considered to have been a culmination point for the role of parliament in decision making about the deployment of troops abroad and the use of military force. In addition to the need for international authorisation, the decision to go to war was preceded by a clear parliamentary preference for a domestic mandate for participation, delivered by means of a vote in the house of commons. This article argues that as a result of this emphasis on domestic political authorisation, the royal prerogative (the residual powers of the sovereign that are exercised by the ministers of the government) has been subjected to broader discussion in plenary sittings since the Second World War. Furthermore, this constitutional debate continued after the invasion of Iraq had begun and the operations against Iraq's conventional forces had turned into insurgency warfare.
Tissue folding generates structural motifs critical to organ function. In the intestine, bending of a flat epithelium into a periodic pattern of folds gives rise to villi, the numerous finger-like protrusions that are essential for nutrient absorption. However, the molecular and mechanical mechanisms driving the initiation and morphogenesis of villi remain a matter of debate. Here, we identify an active mechanical mechanism that simultaneously patterns and folds intestinal villi. We find that PDGFRA+ subepithelial mesenchymal cells generate myosin II-dependent forces sufficient to produce patterned curvature in neighboring tissue interfaces. At the cell-level, this occurs through a process dependent upon matrix metalloproteinase-mediated tissue fluidization and altered cell-ECM adhesion. By combining computational models with in vivo experiments, we reveal these cellular features manifest at the tissue-level as differences in interfacial tensions that promote mesenchymal aggregation and interface bending through a process analogous to the active de-wetting of a thin liquid film.
Federalism, or the fear of it, worked as a catalyst in the British referendum on Brexit in June 2016. In this paper we focus on the pre-European integration context and ask what kind of an alternative federalism was seen to afford in British politics before and after the Second World War. We limit our discussion to parliamentary debates, which have only rarely been used as primary sources for studying European integration history. The British Parliament was one of the key political arenas for debates on foreign policy, not just in terms of informing the party lines but also guiding the public discussion. In the early part of the 1940s the British federalist movement was able to generate political debate on the issue and gain the attention of many leading politicians. We argue that the approach to the use of the concept was politically charged but remained open to various context-based interpretations, which did not eventually lead to any concrete proposals. During the latter part of the 1940s the majority of British MPs were open to different ways of creating unity in Europe. The emphasis on national sovereignty, however, continued. As a result 'federalism', attached to structures for unity, gave way to more pragmatic political solutions.
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