Can public diplomacy in times of crisis shape citizens’ attitudes towards international politics? Using a survey experiment in Italy, we evaluated whether information cues about public diplomacy efforts by the United States and China to assist the country in dealing with the COVID-19 emergency shifted the importance citizens attached to Italy’s international allies being democracies. We found that citizens who receive positive cues about USA efforts to assist Italy report a stronger preference for Italy interacting with democracies. At the same time, when they received positive cues about China’s efforts to assist Italy, they discounted the importance attached to international allies being democracies. We further found that these effects are conditional on the participants’ support for democracy at home. We argue that these findings are consistent with a cognitive dissonance framework where citizens update their attitudes to decrease dissonant cognitions when they receive information that challenges prior beliefs or expectations.

How does space matter in our analyses? How can we evaluate diffusion of phenomena or interdependence among units? How biased can our analysis be if we do not consider spatial relationships? All the above questions are critical theoretical and empirical issues for political scientists belonging to several subfields from Electoral Studies to Comparative Politics, and also for International Relations. In this special issue on methods, our paper introduces political scientists to conceptualizing interdependence between units and how to empirically model these interdependencies using spatial regression. First, the paper presents the building blocks of any feature of spatial data (points, polygons, and raster) and the task of georeferencing. Second, the paper discusses what a spatial matrix (W) is, its varieties and the assumptions we make when choosing one. Third, the paper introduces how to investigate spatial clustering through visualizations (e.g. maps) as well as statistical tests (e.g. Moran's index). Fourth and finally, the paper explains how to model spatial relationships that are of substantive interest to some of our research questions. We conclude by inviting researchers to carefully consider space in their analysis and to reflect on the need, or the lack thereof, to use spatial models.

What causes civilian victimization in conventional civil wars and in conventional wars that experience insurgencies? The authors argue that a key driver of civilian victimization is the vulnerability of the incumbent forces, specifically when the conflict’s front line is shifting. Vulnerability is a function of informational and logistical challenges: when the front line is moving, incumbents face increased informational uncertainty and unstable supply chains that augment their vulnerability. Thus, incumbents will increase the use of civilian victimization in response to a scarcity of high-quality information on the location and identity of insurgents, to limit possible information leaks, and to contain supply disruption and logistics support to adversaries. The authors support their argument using matched difference-in-differences analyses of original subnational data on Nazi-Fascist violence in World War II Italy (1943–1945) and qualitative evidence.

It remains contested whether peacekeeping works. The impact of peacekeepers’ actions at the local subnational level for overall mission success has lately received critical attention. Local peacekeeping is expected to matter because it reassures local actors, deters resumption of armed hostilities, coerces parties to halt fighting, and makes commitment to agreements credible. Thus peacekeepers affect the relations between central and local elites and avoid the emergence of local power vacuums and areas of lawlessness. This study uses new subnational data on the deployment of United Nations peacekeepers. It uses matching and recursive bivariate probit models with exogenous variables for temporal and spatial variation to deal with possible nonrandom assignment of the treatment. We demonstrate that conflict episodes last for shorter periods when peacekeepers are deployed to conflict-prone locations inside a country, even with comparatively modest deployment. The effect of peacekeeping on the onset of local conflict is, however, less clear cut.

United Nations (UN) peacekeepers tend to be deployed to ‘hard-to-resolve’ civil wars. Much less is known about where peacekeepers are deployed within a country. However, to assess peacekeepers’ contribution to peace, it matters whether they are deployed to conflict or relatively safe areas. This article examines subnational UN peacekeeping deployment, contrasting an ‘instrumental’ logic of deployment versus a logic of ‘convenience’. These logics are evaluated using geographically and temporally disaggregated data on UN peacekeepers’ deployment in eight African countries between 1989 and 2006. The analysis demonstrates that peacekeepers are deployed on the frontline: they go where conflict occurs, but there is a notable delay in their deployment. Furthermore, peacekeepers tend to be deployed near major urban areas.

Previous studies identified several domestic factors that may influence a country’s level of structural coup-proofing, i.e., counterbalancing strategies that shall prevent internal groups from seizing power via a coup d’état. We suggest that a country’s level of counterbalancing is also affected by such policies in what we term countries’ “peer groups.” When deciding the appropriate level of counterbalancing, rulers may be affected by external information flows from a “peer group” with similar structural coup-risk characteristics (institutions) or a similar coup-risk experience (coup history). Using maximum likelihood spatial lag models and data in 1976–2005, we find that leaders learn from and emulate counterbalancing in other states, but rather only through an “experiential peer group.”

For a given number of troops in a peace operation, is it advisable to have soldiers from a single country, or should the UN recruit peacekeepers from a variety of donor countries? Since 1990, the number of contributors to peace operations has grown threefold, and most operations have carried the mandate to protect civilians. This article explores the effect of diversity in the composition of a mission, measured by fractionalization and polarization indices, on its performance in protecting civilians in Africa in the period 1991–2008. It finds that mission diversity decreases the level of violence against civilians, a result that holds when geographic and linguistic distances between countries are considered.

Aims - This study aims to present data on structural and human resources of public mental health services located in the Veneto Region, Italy, and to discuss them in the light of implementation of the first National Target Plan for Mental Health (“Progetto Obiettivo 1994-1996”) ten years after its launch. Methods - The study was conducted in the context of the PICOS (Psychosis Incident Cohort Outcome Study) Project, a large first-presentation multisite study on patients with psychotic disorders attending community mental heath services in the Veneto Region. Human and structural resources were surveyed in 26 study sites using a structured interview administered by the PICOS local referents. Results - CMHCs and Day Centres were homogeneously distributed across the Region and their overall rates per resident population met the national standards; a wide variability in the distribution of Day Hospitals was found, with the overall rate per resident population very far from meeting the national standard; the overall rate for Residential Facilities beds was higher than the recommended national standard, showing however an high variability across sites. The overall rate of mental health professionals per resident population was only slightly below the national standard: this was mainly achieved thanks to non-profit organizations which supplement the public system with unspecialised professionals; however, a wide variability in the local rates per resident population was found, with the 50% of the sites showing rates far lower the national standard. Specific lack of trained professionals involved in the provision of psychosocial interventions was found in most sites. Conclusions - A marked variability in human and structural resources across community mental health services in the Veneto Region was found. Possible reasons for this heterogeneity were analysed and implications for mental health care provision were further discussed.

Declaration of Interest: The study has been supported by the Regione del Veneto, Giunta Regionale, Ricerca Sanitaria Finalizzata 2004, Venezia, Italia (grant to Professor M. Ruggeri).

Aims – To evaluate the quality of psychiatric care during the acute psychotic episode and the early post-acute period. Methods – Data concerning 24 indicators, drawn from NICE recommendations, were collected in 19 Departments of Mental Health, in the frame of the SIEP-DIRECT's Project to evaluate the implementation of NICE recommendations in Italian Mental Health Services. Results – The treatment of the acute episode in the Italian Mental Health Services is not based only on admissions in Psychiatric Ward in General Hospitals, but also on intensive home based care. The utilization of day hospital facilities for treating acute episodes is less frequent, as the presence of home based follow up after discharge. About of Departments of Mental Health did not have clinical guidelines concerning the pharmacological treatment in this area. However usually the standard practices followed NICE recommendations in terms of prescribed dosages, monitoring side effects and rationale for shifting to atypical antipsychotic drugs. Antipsychotic drugs, atypical or conventional, were frequently prescribed concurrently, while utilization of atypical antipsychotic drugs was increasing. Conclusions – The results show critical points concerning on one hand the scarce diffusion of clinical guidelines, on other hand the connection between standard practices, clinical guidelines and marketing of atypical antipsychotic drugs. It should be reinforced the role of the community and particularly at service level the capacity of community mental health teams to treat the acute patients.

Declaration of Interest: none.

This study was designed to investigate the effect of both hypertension and ageing on the efficiency of glucose metabolism. A 12-sample, 120 min intravenous glucose tolerance test (IVGTT) was applied to 36 rats: two groups of nine young (12 weeks) spontaneously hypertensive and Wistar Kyoto rats (Y-SHR and Y-WKY group, respectively) and two groups of nine old (40 weeks) SHR and WKY rats (O-SHR and O-WKY group, respectively). Insulinaemia and glycaemia data were interpreted in terms of estimates of glucose effectiveness, SG, and insulin sensitivity, SI, provided by the minimal model of glucose kinetics. The possible link between insulin resistance and hypertension was investigated by comparing Y-SHR vs. Y-WKY and O-SHR vs. O-WKY groups. Comparison of O-SHR vs. Y-SHR and O-WKY vs. Y-WKY groups enabled us to investigate the role of age in the development of abnormalities in glucose metabolism. No significant differences (P > 0.05) were observed in the mean SG and SI estimates between SHR and age-matched WKY groups. This finding indicates that exposure of SHR to high blood pressure levels does not necessarily lead to the development of insulin resistance and impaired glucose effectiveness. Similarly, no significant differences (P > 0.05) were observed in SG and SI estimates between old and young SHR and WKY groups. This finding indicates that, in this animal model of hypertension, insulin sensitivity and glucose effectiveness do not even deteriorate with ageing. Experimental Physiology (2003) 88.3, 399-404.