Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

Book Review: Scorched Earth: Environmental Warfare As A Crime Against Humanity And Nature, Jeremy Ritzer

Genocide Studies and Prevention: An International Journal

The subtitle of Emmanuel Kreike’s Scorched Earth foreshadows the goal of this impressive and comprehensive contribution to the field. His goal is to chip away at the Nature-Culture dichotomy that he argues drives, and limits, much of the analysis that is produced of historical, and modern, warfare. Kreike uses the concept of environcide, which he defines as “intentionally or unintentionally damaging, destroying, or rendering inaccessible environmental infrastructure”, and argues that the traditional assumptions about nature and culture in the study of warfare obscure the importance of the natural world in determining who lives and who dies. For the field of …

Mechanical Equipment In Ied Clearance: Observations From Iraq, Pehr Lodhammar, Mark Wilkinson Ph.D.

The Journal of Conventional Weapons Destruction

Mechanical equipment has been in the inventory of conventional military forces for the purposes of military engineering—including demining—since the Second World War. The integration of mechanical equipment into the United Nations Mine Action Service (UNMAS) Iraq clearance activities may have therefore seemed a natural evolution from what might be considered ‘conventional’ mine clearance, yet it brought with it a number of issues. First, the absence of any clear doctrine for the use of mechanical equipment in improvised explosive device (IED) clearance generated resistance and criticism from specialist IED clearance companies operating at that time in Iraq. It was argued that …

Tailoring Explosive Ordnance Risk Education: How Mag Addresses Gender/Cultural Sensitivities And Local Risk-Taking Behavior, Sebastian Kasack

The Journal of Conventional Weapons Destruction

The relevance of risk education is widely acknowledged as reflected in the Oslo Action Plan (OAP) with its distinct chapter on ‘Mine risk education and reduction’ and five explicit actions. Good risk education must be tailored. MAG’s experience delivering explosive ordnance risk education (EORE) in four-teen countries confirms the relevance of tailoring EORE to the local reality: to people’s risk taking behaviors, to the actual explosive ordnance (EO) threat, to seasonality, availability of people for risk education sessions, and approaches that re-spect gender and diversity and take conflict sensitivity into account.

Accident Response To Mitigate Risk: A Call To Action, Lillian Gates

The Journal of Conventional Weapons Destruction

Effective accident response in humanitarian mine action (HMA) contributes to increased safety in future demining work. Mine action organizations play a variety of roles in the improvement of accident response, with the U.S. Department of State’s Office of Weapons Removal and Abatement in the Bureau of Political-Military Affairs being the most recent to adjust their accident response process by establishing the Accident Review Panel (ARP). This panel consolidates the office’s efforts and allows for standardized accident response protocol and the collection and analysis of accident data. Other organizations active in cultivating better accident responses include the United Nations Mine Action …

Hidden Crisis In Borno State, Sean Sutton

The Journal of Conventional Weapons Destruction

At the end of 2019, Nigeria reported a significant increase of landmine, explosive remnants of war (ERW), and improvised explosive device (IED) contamination in its states. In 2019 alone, a total of 239 known mine casualties were recorded in Nigeria. Although the exact amount of contamination in Nigeria today is unknown, the Landmine & Cluster Munition Monitor asserts that Borno is the most heavily affected state in the country. Due to mounting mine contamination and increasing pressure from non-state armed groups (NSAG), internally displaced persons (IDPs) and communities are unable to safely return to the region. Extensive landmine use by …

A Note From The Interim Director, Cisr Jmu

The Journal of Conventional Weapons Destruction

No abstract provided.

Innovative Finance For Mine Action, Camille Wallen, Peter Nicholas, Anna Von Griesheim

The Journal of Conventional Weapons Destruction

Achieving a world free of landmines will require at least US$1 billion in additional funding. Bridging this gap will require using all available funding sources and maximizing the efficiency of spending. Innovative finance can help achieve both aims by accessing funding not tradition­ally available for mine action. To explore these options further, the UK government commissioned work to examine the potential roles of innovative finance in mine action. After discussions with a range of stakeholders, a broad consensus emerged around three approaches. First, outcomes finance, whereby funding disburses against independently verified results, such as mine clearance and recov­ery of activity …

The Journal Of Conventional Weapons Destruction, Issue 25.2 (2021), Cisr Journal

The Journal of Conventional Weapons Destruction

Read Issue 25.2 on Issuu.com

Exploratory Study On The Current Limitations Of Personal Protective Equipment And The Potential For Innovation, Kyaw Lin Htut

The Journal of Conventional Weapons Destruction

Personal protective equipment (PPE) in mine action typically consists of a polycarbonate visor that fully covers the face and front neck, and body armor consisting of an apron made of aramid fabric (i.e., Kevlar) that fully covers the front torso, groin, and neck. PPE used in mine action is generally considered as “the last line of defense” since the primary method through which accidental deaths and injuries are prevented is through the application of and adherence to appropriate standard operating procedures (SOPs). However, with any operations, there is always an element of “acceptable risk,” and universal adherence to all SOPs …

Climate Change And Extreme Weather: How Can Mine Action Programs Adapt To Our Changing Environment?, Linsey Cottrell, Carlie Stowe

The Journal of Conventional Weapons Destruction

Extreme weather events around the world are already impacting land that is contaminated with explosive ordnance (EO). Chronicling these events is not yet standardized, but these events will become more frequent as our climate changes. The uncertainty around climate change, related risks, and how these will regionally impact mine action operations makes it difficult to prioritize and plan for mitigation and adaptation measures. With limited guidance currently in place for the mine action sector, the introduction of climate change adaptation principles must be supported, and operational and risk management plans must be scrutinized to ensure that any additional climate change–related …

A Pressing Need: Decades Of Agreement, Few Results On Arms Record-Keeping, Philip Alpers

The Journal of Conventional Weapons Destruction

Recent developments in computerized record-keeping for state-owned arms, ammunition, and explosives now offer simple, affordable solutions in the lowest-capacity environments. A global partnership between Mines Advisory Group (MAG) and the developers of ArmsTracker soft-ware promises to break a twenty-year logjam that, until now, has denied comprehensive, affordable weapon and ammunition record-keeping systems to states in greatest need.

Unexplored Opportunities: Multi-Sector Strategies For Collaboration In Underwater Unexploded Ordnance Remediation, Chris Price

The Journal of Conventional Weapons Destruction

Few global challenges are as ripe for multi-sector collaboration as underwater (UW) unexploded ordnance (UXO) remediation. Millions of metric tons of UXO are lying on and under the seabed corroding, decaying, and seeping toxic chemicals into the ecosystem—ultimately ending up in our food. Because most underwater UXO are from WWI and WWII, and given the corrosion rates of most metals from which ordnance is made, the inevitable problems with ordnance dumped, sunk, and fired into bodies of water (mostly in coastal regions) are catching up with us. The urgency is exacer-bated by biochemical changes in oceans due to climate change …

Barrier Analysis And Explosive Ordnance Risk Education, Kim Fletcher, India Mcgrath

The Journal of Conventional Weapons Destruction

In early 2020, The HALO Trust (HALO) in partnership with Al Ghad conducted a "barrier analysis" with youth in Mosul, Iraq to determine the constraints they faced in adopting safer behaviors related to explosive ordnance (EO). Through the barrier analysis, HALO and Al Ghad found that youth with lower perceived self-efficacy, beliefs that an EO accident would not likely result in severe consequences, and friends who encouraged unsafe behaviors were all more likely to engage in less safe behaviors than their counterparts were. The findings enabled HALO and Al Ghad to tailor their EORE messaging to these barriers in an …

Endnotes, Cisr Jmu

The Journal of Conventional Weapons Destruction

No abstract provided.

Undersea Cables: The Ultimate Geopolitical Chokepoint, Bert Chapman

FORCES Initiative: Strategy, Security, and Social Systems

This work provides historical and contemporary overviews of this critical geopolitical problem, describes the policy actors addressing this in the U.S. and selected other countries, and provides maps and information on many undersea cable work routes. These cables are chokepoints with one dictionary defining chokepoints as “a strategic narrow route providing passage through or to another region."

Who Mediates Matters: The Impact Of Individual Mediator Competency Skills On Individual And Civil Conflict Mediation, Erin V. Rowland

Doctoral Dissertations

Until this point, research in the field of conflict mediation concerning how third-party entities impact mediation outcomes has largely focused on the macrolevel factors of those entities and the disputing parties – geographic proximity of the mediating states to the disputants, the presence of alliances, the existence of enduring rivalries, etc. However, even when macrolevel factors are relatively similar, differences still exist in mediation outcome. This research proposes that some differences in mediation outcome are due to the impact of individual mediator factors, more specifically individual mediator competency skills in the form of Knowledge, Know-how, and Behavioral competencies. Borrowing from …

Coalition For Prisoners' Rights Newsletter, Vol. 46-C, No. 12, Coalition For Prisoners' Rights

Coalition for Prisoners' Rights Newsletters

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The Second-Order Impact Of Relative Power On Outcomes Of Crisis Bargaining: A Theory Of Expected Disutility And Resolve, Tatevik Movsisyan

Graduate Program in International Studies Theses & Dissertations

How does structure shape behavior and outcomes in crisis bargaining? Formal bargaining models of war rely on expected utility theory to describe first-order effects, whereby the payoffs of war determine actors’ “resolve” to fight as a function of costs and benefits. Value preferences of risk and future discounting are routinely treated as predefined and subjective individual attributes, outside the strategic context of bargaining or independent from expected utility. However, such treatment fails to account for context-conditional preferences sourcing from actors’ expectations of relative gain or loss. Drawing on a wealth of experimental evidence from behavioral economics, but without departing from …

Strategi Pemberdayaan Muda Menuju Perdamaian Internasional (Studi Kasus : Komunitas Yipc Indonesia), Fathurohman Fathurohman, Syaifuddin Anwar

Jurnal Kajian Stratejik Ketahanan Nasional

Pancasila as the nation's personality is an image that must be highlighted in international life. The young generation as the vanguard and the main cluster of a nation must practice the values of Pancasila. Yout Interfaith Peacemaker Community (YIPC) is a collection of youth from different countries and religions, committed to being actively involved in peace building. Youth capacity building through positive work enhancement. This research uses the theory of empowerment of youth, with method of descriptive research based on source of library and interview. The results of the study show that the Youth Response to engage in peace building …

Reinventing Multilateral Order, Sundeep Waslekar

New England Journal of Public Policy

The multiple crises of our time result from the breakdown of the multilateral order. Some of these crises may intensify between now and 2030. Multilateral organizations have been eroded to the extent that they are unable to manage catastrophic risk, including a military confrontation between superpowers. The weakening of multilateralism is mirrored in the strengthening of hypernationalism in many countries. It will not be sufficient to mend the multilateral system. It is necessary, instead, to envisage new principles for creating a global governance grid superseding the United Nations Security Council that serves the interests of human civilization and not the …

Peace Is The Answer For Our Post-Pandemic World, Steve Killelea

New England Journal of Public Policy

Humanity is facing a series of existential threats unlike any it has experienced before in its short history. They are driven mainly by overpopulation, increasingly impactful advancements in technology, and now a pandemic. Countering these threats will require a new way of conceptualizing our relationships with each other and the ecosystems we depend on. The world needs a new approach that will allow us to adapt in the short term and reverse the decline in the long term.

Peace is central to a safe and productive society. Without peace, we will never achieve the level of trust, cooperation, and inclusiveness …

From Conflict To Covid: How Shared Experiences Shape Our World And How They Could Improve It, Harvey Whitehouse

New England Journal of Public Policy

The human capacity for cooperation is at the root of many of the most impressive accomplishments of our species—from the evolution of language and tool use to the construction of pyramids and space stations. Although some forms of cooperation are motivated by self-interest or fear of punishment, the forms of cooperation that are most likely to succeed in the face of personal costs stem from love of the group. In this article, I consider one of the most intense forms of ingroup love known to psychology—identity fusion—resulting from shared suffering, from the battlefield and football pitch to the hospital ward …

Challenges For Multilateralism In A Pre-Post-Covid World, Richard Caplan

New England Journal of Public Policy

Multilateralism today faces numerous challenges. This article offers some reflections on those challenges—what they are and how they originated—and how multilateralism can be reinvigorated. It argues that though multilateralism is not a panacea, many of the critical challenges that confront humanity today—biodiversity, cybersecurity, global warming, mass migration, arms proliferation, and the regulation of outer space, as well as the spread of infectious diseases—can be met only with states and peoples cooperating more closely.

The Formation Of Proxy Force And External State Relationships: Prospect Theory And Proxy Force Decision Making, Brandon Temple

Dissertations

Proxy war is a common tactic employed by great powers as a safer alternative to direct conflict, especially in the era of nuclear weapons. While proxy war is common, there is a lack of research on the formation of proxy-external state relationships. Previous research has typically examined the phenomena of proxy war through the perspective of the external state power, leaving a gap in the literature. This dissertation fills that gap by assessing the conditions under which armed groups enter into proxy relationships with external states. Using prospect theory as a framework for understanding more clearly armed group decision making …

Book Reviews, Usawc Press

The US Army War College Quarterly: Parameters

No abstract provided.

Contributor's Guidelines And Article Index, Usawc Press

The US Army War College Quarterly: Parameters

No abstract provided.

Sino-Indian Border Disputes In An Era Of Strategic Expansions, Roman Muzalevsky

The US Army War College Quarterly: Parameters

The June 2020 clash between the People’s Republic of China and India in the disputed Ladakh border area resulted from the strategic expansions of both powers. Like two bubbles expanding in a contained space, these expansions were bound to collide and cause friction. This article explains how the expansions precipitated the incident and might exacerbate border disputes in the future. In pondering implications, it recommends Washington pursue a Eurasia-focused policy embracing the disputed region.

On “The Us Army And The Pacific: Challenges And Legacies”, Brian Mcallister Linn

The US Army War College Quarterly: Parameters

This commentary responds to David M. Finkelstein’s article, “The US Army and the Pacific: Challenges and Legacies,” published in the Autumn 2020 issue of Parameters (vol. 50, no. 3).

Book Reviews, Usawc Press

The US Army War College Quarterly: Parameters

No abstract provided.

The Air Littoral: Another Look, Maximilian K. Bremer, Kelly A. Grieco

The US Army War College Quarterly: Parameters

Assessing threats to the air littoral, the airspace between ground forces and high-end fighters and bombers, requires a paradigm change in American military thinking about verticality. This article explores the consequences of domain convergence, specifically for the Army and Air Force’s different concepts of control. It will assist US military and policy practitioners in conceptualizing the air littoral and in thinking more vertically about the air and land domains and the challenges of domain convergence.