What are the costs of wars and conflicts--and why do governments of nation states continue to incur them? Using detailed examples drawn from recent conflicts in the Persian Gulf, this book explains how the price of aggression is low enough that governments do not avoid conflicts, examines many dimensions of costs incurred by warfare, and proposes a private sector solution to warfare's low cost.

This book examines the conceptions of justice from Zarathustra to Islam. The text explores the conceptions of justice by Zarathustra, Ancient Egypt, India, Mesopotamia, Noah, Abraham, and Moses. During the Axial Age (800-200BCE), the focus of justice is in India, China, and Greece. In the post-Axial age, the focus is on Christianity. The authors then turn to Islam, where justice is conceived as a system, which emerges if the Qur'anic rules are followed. This work concludes with the views of early Muslim thinkers and on how these societies deteriorated after the death of the Prophet. The monograph is ideal for those interested in the conception of justice through the ages, Islamic studies, political Islam, and issues of peace and justice.

This book explains a perspective on the system of justice that emerges in Islam if rules are followed and how the Islamic system is differentiated from the conventional thinking on justice. It examines conceptions of justice from the Enlightenment to Bentham to Rawls to contemporary philosophers including Sen, Cohen, Nussbaum, and Pogge. The authors present the views of twentieth century Muslim thinkers on justice who see Muslims upholding rituals but not living according to Qur'anic rules. It provides empirical surveys of the current state of justice in Muslim countries analyzing the economic, social, and political state of affairs. The authors conclude by assessing the state of justice-injustice in Muslim countries and highlighting areas in need of attention for justice to prevail.

The extent of Islamicity, or what Islam demands, is measured to confirm that self-declared Muslim countries have not adopted foundational Islamic teachings for rule-compliant Muslim communities. Western countries, on the other hand, are demonstrated to have better implemented fundamental Islamic teachings for a thriving society.

This book provides an introduction to the vision of an economic system based completely on the Holy Qur'an-a system defined as a collection of institutions, representing rules of behavior, prescribed by Allah for humans, and the traditions of the Messenger. The authors argue that the main reason for the economic underperformance of Muslim countries and their economies has been non-compliance with the prescribed rules of behavior. Rule non-compliance has been chiefly due to the failure of Muslims to comprehend the Metaframework of the Qur'an and the Archetype Model of the Prophet Mohammad and interpret them in ways compatible with their own generation and time. Askari and Mirakhor believe these rules (institutions), properly adapted to prevailing conditions present what they consider as an ideal economic system.

Resource Rich Muslim Countries and Islamic Institutional Reforms explores the "resource curse," a condition in which a country's abundance of natural resources is negatively linked with the country's development and economic growth, in resource rich Muslim countries. The resource curse puzzle has been studied for over twenty years, with prior researchers looking to prove its existence and explore its causes. Recent studies have begun to indicate institutional failure as a likely cause of the curse, as wealth of resources tends to cause counterproductive behaviors such as rent-seeking, patronage and corruption. The subpar economic performance of resource rich Muslim countries in the Organization of the Islamic Cooperation (OIC) could be attributed to the manifestation of a resource curse. Collectively, the member countries of the OIC contribute over 9% of the world's total GDP with 22.8% of the world's population. Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates alone contribute about 17% of world oil production. Resource rich Muslim countries should be at the forefront of economic performance and growth, yet we see the opposite when we compare the performance of these countries to countries that are not resource rich (such as Spain, France, Hong Kong and Japan). Through an analysis of sample countries, the authors have discovered that natural resources exert a drag on the countries' economic growth, thereby indicating the presence of the resource curse. Their research also found weaknesses in the quality of institutions as the cause of the curse. To counteract the negative effects of the resource curse in resource rich Muslim countries, the authors provide a number of Islamic institutional reforms.

This book explores how the recent development of Muslim countries as a group has fallen far short of non-Muslim countries, which, some have concluded, may be a result of Islamic teachings. The authors examine Muslim countries over time, viewing their progression on the Islamicity scale. They assess why some countries have done better than others, and to derive useful policy recommendations to improve political, social, human, governance and economic performance.

Explaining how the price of aggression is low enough that governments do not avoid conflicts, this book uses examples drawn from recent conflicts in the Persian Gulf to examine many dimensions of costs incurred by warfare and proposes a private sector solution to warfare's low cost.

This book explores how the recent development of Muslim countries as a group has fallen far short of non-Muslim countries, which, some have concluded, may be a result of Islamic teachings. The authors examine Muslim countries over time, viewing their progression on the Islamicity scale. They assess why some countries have done better than others, and to derive useful policy recommendations to improve political, social, human, governance and economic performance.

The extent of Islamicity, or what Islam demands, is measured to confirm that self-declared Muslim countries have not adopted foundational Islamic teachings for rule-compliant Muslim communities. Western countries, on the other hand, are demonstrated to have better implemented fundamental Islamic teachings for a thriving society.

Diplomarbeit aus dem Jahr 2008 im Fachbereich Biologie - Genetik / Gentechnologie, Note: 1,0, Universitat zu Koln (Institut fur Genetik), Sprache: Deutsch, Anmerkungen: Im Rahmen dieser Arbeit wurden fur ein europaisches Projekt (EPICURE) acht Kandidatengene bezuglich der idiopathisch generalisierten Epilepsie (IGE), einer zum Teil erblichen Storung des zentralen Nervensystems (ZNS), in einem europaischen Kollektiv aus acht Landern untersucht. Durch Sequenzierung der Kandidatengene und Durchfuhrung einer Kosegregationsanalyse konnte im Gen CACNA1I eine neue DNA-Variante entdeckt werden, die eventuell in der Lage ist, IGE auszulosen oder zumindest zu beeinflussen., Abstract: In dieser Arbeit wurden durch eine VAPSE (variants affecting protein structure or expression)- basierte Strategie acht Kandidatengene fur die Untersuchung der neurologischen Krankheitsgruppe idiopathische Epilepsien" sequenziert. Die hierbei identifizierten Variationen wurden mittels in silico Analysen bewertet und gegenuber haufigen Sequenzvarianten in der Population abgegrenzt. Bei der anschliessenden familiaren Kosegregationsanalyse konnte eine neue nicht-synonyme Variante (c.920G>A, p.Arg307His) im Gen CACNA1I identifiziert werden, die eventuell zur Epilepsie fuhrt. Durch eine Fall-Kontroll-Assoziationsstudie konnte weiterhin die Assoziation des durch Sequenzierung identifizierten SNPs rs1130183 im Gen KCNJ10 mit IGE bestatigt werden. Genetisch determinierte Funktionsstorungen von Ionenkanalen spielen eine zentrale Rolle bei der Entstehung von monogenen Epilepsien und erlauben erste konkrete Einblicke in kritische Schlusselstellen der molekularen Epileptogenese. Um die wichtigsten genetischen Risikofaktoren umfassend aufzudecken, sind hinreichend grosse Studienkollektive von mehreren tausend Einzelfallen und mehreren hundert Multiplex-Familien erforderlich. Insbesondere genomweite, hochauflosende Assoziationsstudien eroffnen eine aussichtsreiche Perspektive, die haufigsten epileptogenen DN