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This week, it's Islamist politics, immigrant labor dynamics, anti-terror strategy and straight facts about trains. It's also time to say thanks and goodbye to the loyal interns who have worked on TTR all fall -- Zeesham Aleem, Stuart Whatley, David Heller, and Carrie Petri. Also a special cameo by former TAP intern Daniel Strauss, who's always ready to pinch-hit. Anyway, round-up ho:
- We'll see you at the Islamist crossroads. [PDF] In a new Carnegie Endowment paper, Marina Ottaway and Amr Hamzawy explore a inherent weakness that is now apparent in Islamist movements: political compromise. As Islamist parties begin to participate in political systems, they must make short-term concessions to serve their long-term goals. Unfortunately, this incites criticism from their base supporters, who accuse them of not adhering to their party's more hard-line religious principles in the short-term. But if reformers within Islamist movements can't participate in democratic systems, there is even more legitimacy for hard-liners. The paper describes this as a "crossroads" for Islamist political movements and maintains that those movements whose participation is hampered will fall under further hard-line influence. Thus, it is important that states allow full political participation for these parties if they hope to achieve democratic moderation in the long-term.-- SW
- Here today; gone tomorrow?The growth of foreign-born Latinos in the labor force leveled off thisyear, according to a Pew Hispanic Center report released yesterday. Thereport suggests that fewer Latino immigrants have been entering theU.S. since 2005 than in years previous. Since immigrant Latinos in thelabor force mostly work in construction, early in the last decade theircontribution to the labor force grew as residential building projects did; now, ashousing stagnates, so does the immigrant Latino contribution to thelabor force. And of those newly joining the labor ranks, most arenative-born as opposed to immigrant. But after all this, Pew can't saywith confidence that any significant number of Latino immigrants haveactually been leaving the U.S.-- CP
- How's your anti-terror portfolio? Uncertainty surrounding the prevention of future terrorist attacks inspired a recent RAND Corporation policy brief. The author advocates a complementary approach to terror prevention entailing prevention and mitigation policies aimed at lessening the consequences of successful terrorist attacks. Traditional prevention measures, such as those those designed to stop attacks outright, ought to be implemented alongside mitigation measures, or those designed to limit the effects of a terrorist operation. Policymakers, according to this report, should conceive of anti-terror measures as a portfolio offering a combination of elements that, together, perform better when facing a wider variety of future threats. -- DH
- Transit by the numbers. The Federal Transit Administration recently released a study comparing carbon emissions of different modes of transportation. Unsurprisingly, public transportation did very well and private automobiles ... didn't. The study found that 59.5 percent of all transportation emissions come from passenger cars or non-duty trucks while 0.8 percent come from buses and motorcycles and 8.7 percent come from non-road transportation options, presumably rail options. As a rule, an excellent public transportation service is going to be much better for the environment than good roads and cars. The FTA study reports that, on average, buses emit 0.65 pounds of CO2 per passenger per mile, heavy rails emit 0.24, light rail 0.41, and commuter rails 0.35.-- DS
-- TAP Staff
