These crochet jackets from Coats & Clark let you change your wardrobe whenever you change your mood. Is it a day for quick decisions and getting things done? Toss on Confident, a button-down coat with a hem that cruises below the hip. If being Serene is more your thing, then mix a playful puff stitch with shades of green to create a jacket as peaceful as a forest retreat. Hunting for a way to buck the trends? The Bold jacket is camo-inspired, but it won t let you get lost in a crowd. Romantic is a cropped hoodie that hugs your shoulders and frames your face with soft bobbles. 4 jackets to crochet: Confident by Angel Rhett (sizes 8, 10, 12) ; Serene and Romantic, both by Ann E. Smith (sizes S, M, L, XL) ; and Bold by Kathleen Sams (sizes S, M, L) .

Why would states ever give up their independence to join federations? While federation can provide more wealth or security than self-sufficiency, states can in principle get those benefits more easily by cooperating through international organizations such as alliances or customs unions.Chad Rector develops a new theory that states federate when their leaders expect benefits from closer military or economic cooperation but also expect that cooperation via an international organization would put some of the states in a vulnerable position, open to extortion from their erstwhile partners. The potentially vulnerable states hold out, refusing to join alliances or customs unions, and only agreeing to military and economic cooperation under a federal constitution.Rector examines several historical cases: the making of a federal Australia and the eventual exclusion of New Zealand from the union, the decisions made within Buenos Aires and Prussia to build Argentina and Germany largely through federal contracts rather than conquests, and the failures of postindependence unions in East Africa and the Caribbean.