This book attempts to answer the question of ‘who do you bomb when you cannot reach military targets’. Michael L. Gross updates the ethics of just war, improving on traditional accounts for an age where asymmetric conflict is prevalent. Whilst a spirited attempt to resolve this dilemma, it is only partially successful.
Hamas is currently treading a very risky line. For the Salafi-Jihadists, Hamas has de-legitimised itself as an Islamic group and as a leader of the resistance against Israel. Rather ironically, Hamas will be better off in the short term continuing to simultaneously straddle positions of moderation and extremism – basically maintaining the status quo.
A nuclear Iran will go one of two ways. It will either have no obvious effect, the weapon won’t be used for fear of repercussion yet conventional wars will continue; a stalemate. Or, the Middle East will face the prospect of a complete breakdown as either Iran is pre-empted, Israel feels cornered by the likely arms race or technology is leaked; the only recourse available will be war.
The self-immolation of Mohammed Bouazizi instilled enough courage in the Arab people to demand the democratic and human rights that they deserve. If the present protests on the Arab streets are sending tremors across the world, then in the near future, an unexpected political event in the region will be potent enough to hit globally with the force of a tsunami.
This essay argues that neo-colonialist discourses were present within the U.S. at the time of the Afghanistan War and served to demonise and essentialise Islamic culture in general, whilst removing from debate the historical political landscape of Afghanistan. Such historical accounts are essential to understand the roots of women’s insecurity in the nation, which persist to this day.
The raising of the US national debt ceiling authorizing America to borrow money on global financial markets has become one of the most under-reported topics of our time. What was usually a minor issue has become a game of “Russian roulette”. The stakes could not be any higher. Forget American decline, global chaos would result.
The development of air power in the realm of the military emerged almost at the same time as aviation itself due to the accelerating features of the First World War. With air power’s inception, it became possible to make strategic strikes against the enemy’s centre of gravity without the necessity of making contact in a traditional land or sea war.
CIA director Leon Panetta is currently engaged in talks in Islamabad, arriving the day after the head of the Pakistani Army, attempted to win back some respect from the Pakistani population by urging the US to divert some of its $3 billion a year aid to ‘help the common man’ while also forcefully re-asserting Pakistan’s sovereignty. These concerns would be heartening if they were not so transparent.
Within his work on Operation Barbarossa, Koch states that ‘the origins of the German invasion of Russia’ remain importantly ‘at the centre of historical debate’. A potential reason for this is the highly contentious roots of the decision to invade Russia in 1941; what exactly motivated Hitler to initiate an invasion that would inevitably result in Germany having to fight a war on two unsustainable fronts?
In 2000, the UN reported that 36 countries were currently involved in conflict in which child soldiers were taking part. 17 of those conflicts saw the state itself employing children to fight. While some are kidnapped or forced into military service many join of their own volition, seduced by the illicit glamour of violence, tales of war and the promise of adventure which recruiters provide.
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