International Security

In 2011 Anders Behring Breivik, ABB, slaughtered 77 civilians in a twofold attack in Oslo and on the island of Utøya, Norway. During his trial ABB’s sanity or lack thereof was fiercely contested. Two psychiatric evaluations arrived at radically different diagnoses of psychosis and personality disorder respectively. Though unrivalled in its bestiality, the case of ABB is not unique. In 1835, a French peasant Pierre Marie Rivière, PMR, in a seemingly incomprehensible act of cruelty killed his immediate family. Some contemporaries, including Esquirol, saw in PMR the traces of radical irrationality (psychosis) while others ascribed his deeds to an evil personality. Thus a basic disagreement on the nature of rationality and madness appears to have persisted across the centuries. The aim of this paper is to clarify the sources of this diagnostic divergence and to shed some light on pressing epistemological and clinical issues related to the diagnostic process, its conceptual foundation an...

This essay conceptualizes five recipes to solve secession conflicts that have taken place in postcommunist territories—federalization, land-for-peace, protectorate policy, reconquest, and the destruction of the parent state by the patron state—and investigates their merits and demerits. This essay provides case studies of the South Ossetian War in 2008 and its aftermath (as an example of the protectorate policy), the Second Karabakh War in 2020 (reconquest), and the Russo-Ukrainian War in 2022 (destruction of the parent state by the patron state). We observe the tendency that the ineffectiveness of federalization and land-for-peace induces parties of conflict to move on to unilateral or even coercive recipes.

El terrorismo es un fenómeno internacional que se introduce en agenda a partir del atentado a las torres gemelas, el 11-S. Sin embargo, Argentina ya había sufrido dos atentados terroristas en su territorio previamente y se volvió pionera en la lucha contra el mismo. Al ser una amenaza asimétrica y de carácter global, requiere de la coordinación de múltiples actores para combatirlo, pero el problema se presenta a la hora de encontrar un consenso universal respecto a su definición y características. Ante la falta de acuerdo, los espacios de coordinación, como pueden ser los organismos regionales, pueden volverse ineficaces en el diseño de una estrategia internacional contra el terrorismo si no logran un consenso en cuanto a su identificación. Al no haber una línea universal respecto a ello, Argentina formó su posición en torno a sus propios intereses, focalizándose en los dos grandes temas que la atraviesan: el atentado a la AMIA y la triple frontera.

In this paper, we present several methods of constructing trajectories for autonomous cars in a car race setting using the TORCS car race simulation system with the goal of improving race completion time. The first method builds the trajectory procedurally using known efficient curves. It starts by mapping the race track using available sensors provided by TORCS. The track is then reconstructed and segmented based on the curvature direction. Last, efficient curve profiles are applied to each segment. The second method applies smoothing and gradient descent optimization algorithms to improve such trajectories built by the first method. Finally, we use a genetic algorithm to find an optimal trajectory by minimizing the overall length of the curve. A coarser segmentation is used in this case and a number of key points are selected for the trajectory definition. We compare the results of these different methods on two chosen race tracks and show that the genetic algorithm is capable of ...

The coronavirus has hit the world severely: not only the health sector is facing an unprecedented challenge but also is the whole world system, which involves global power distribution, global governance mechanisms, global leadership roles, and so on. In this chapter, we will focus on chances in global leadership in the post-pandemic world: How does the pandemic affect global leadership capacity and roles through a comparative analysis of the G2: the United States and China.

Este trabajo analiza el acuerdo de retirada del Reino Unido de la Unión Europea, constituido como uno de los documentos jurídicos más importantes que la Unión Europea ha elaborado desde el Tratado de Lisboa. Contempla en sus 185 artículos las áreas más relevantes que deberán regirse durante el marco temporal de transición: los derechos de los ciudadanos, la necesaria salvaguardia de la seguridad jurídica, las disposiciones financieras y la situación especial de Irlanda del Norte, Chipre y Gibraltar en distintos protocolos. El tratado se activará una vez ratificado, momento en el que el Reino Unido dejará de ser Estado miembro de pleno derecho de la Unión, el 29 de marzo de 2019. Este acuerdo de retirada tiene un marco temporal que se extendería hasta el 31 de diciembre de 2020 y luego, si el comité conjunto lo decide, con una posible prórroga hasta el 31 de diciembre de 2022. A lo largo de este periodo se procederá a la negociación del acuerdo definitivo entre el Reino Unido y la Un...

Um extenso corpo da literatura sobre transferência e aquisição de armamentos dedicou-se a analisar os diversos elementos, endógenos e exógenos, que orientam a demanda dos Estados por tecnologia militar. À luz dessas considerações teóricas, diferentes trabalhos buscaram compreender o fenômeno de modernização militar em países da América do Sul e suas potenciais implicações para a dinâmica de segurança regional. Buscamos avançar o argumento de que a demanda por sistemas de armas modernos está vinculada a um processo internacional de isomorfismo das organizações militares. Nesse sentido, nosso objetivo é compreender a demanda da Marinha brasileira pelo submarino de propulsão nuclear. A partir da perspectiva do neoinstitucionalismo sociológico, nossa hipótese é que a demanda da força naval brasileira foi historicamente conformada pela difusão de normas constitutivas sobre o que representa o poder militar moderno.Palavras-chave: Tecnologia militar; submarino nuclear; Marinha do Brasil.AB...

Paradoxically, for some of us, and first of all, our lives depend on the Planet Earth on which we live. A healthy Planet Earth will allow us a beautiful, long and healthy life. In international treaties or conventions, as well as in constitutions, there is written about the right to a healthy environment, a right that is usually recongnized to each human being. Although this right is recognized, protected and even guaranteed, shouldn't we speak about ourfundamental duty to ensure a healthy environment? On the other hand, even if we are speaking about the right or the duty to a healthy environment, or both of them, first of all, from a legal point of view, there should be a constitutional regulation and not just the need to ensure a healthy environment. This article, being the first step in analyzing this fundamental right of every person, examines some of the international regulations of the right to a healthy environment, but also some of the provisions from different documents...

A large number of Western experts have been discarding a fundamental aspect of a good analysis: logic. It is well known that a large number of these experts are not really concerned with explaining the phenomena we are experiencing but rather with molding them to their ideology and politics.

With its troop withdrawals from Iraq in 2011 and Afghanistan in 2021, the US exhibits a much smaller military footprint in the Middle East than it did in the mid to late 2000s. US regional strategy, however, remains structured around the capacity to deploy military force as a means maintain regional influence, contain Iran, and compete against China and Russia.

For many analysts, political leaders, and much of the US public, a reduced military posture in the Middle East is very compelling. While some argue the US should completely withdraw its forces from the region since no vital security interests are currently threatened, even those calling for continuing engagement recognize the value of rebalancing the US military posture in response to changing contexts and needs.

The challenge for any withdrawal or rebalancing, however, is that US engagement in the region has become so deeply entangled within military institutions and assets that uprooting them would further erode US influence in the region. At the same time, even as previous rationale for the strategic value of the region decline, the US increasingly approaches the Middle East as an arena for militarized great power competition. As a result, any sustained reduction in the US military posture in the Middle East would require a broader demilitarization of US policy, the reduction of great power conflict, and the development of alternative means to address the diverse sources of regional insecurity.

The purpose of this investigation is to explore the effect of objective and subjective personal income on perceived national security in the Baltic states, including Lithuania, Latvia, and Estonia. A representative quantitative survey was conducted in three Baltic countries in August 2021. The fieldwork was carried out by the public opinion and market research company Baltic Surveys. The sampling method in the three countries was the same: the probability multi-stage structural method, based on criteria of geographical region, size of settlement, gender, and age. The survey involved more than 1000 respondents per country. Multivariate statistical analysis, including correlation analysis and linear regression analysis was performed. The percentage distribution of the variable on the perception of safety reveals that more than half of the respondents in all Baltic countries agreed that they feel safe living in their own country. Moreover, it is notable that the feeling of safety in Es...

This article analyses how China has overcome the limit of coercion through the use of Private Security Companies since the end of the Cold War until 2021. For this purpose, the Security Governance approach was applied to understand how the decentralisation and fragmentation of the security monopoly by the state could result in convenient coercive acts against societies. We point two paths of observation: an international path-the protection of the Chinese diaspora and the Belt and Road Initiative facilities; and a national path-the governmental interests that pave the monitoring and controlling mechanisms of Chinese society.

The Syrian crisis is quite important for Middle Eastern Security dynamics because it has gradually transformed the entire regional order. There are many regional states involved. Moreover, the crisis has seen how foreign involvement became a new norm for the semantics. The placement of Turkey and Iran and the formation of a trifecta between Russia-Turkey-Iran are of large value. The added plunge of China in Syria is going to have certain impacts for both Middle East and China. Furthermore, non-state actors have a role to play as well. All in all, the regional order and the security milieu give an insight as to the multiple impacts for the region due to the lingering Syrian Crisis. Crisis. he international order at all times, remains highly elusive. Similarly, the regional order is no different because it is something which cannot be at one time calculated as a whole and is abstract. Middle East is a valid example because its regional order is full of significant cracks and craters a...

This article deals with the perpetual territorial disputes in the South China Sea and attempts to explain the relations between China, the USA, the South China Sea states, and selected international organizations/regimes from the perspective of a hedging strategy. The hedging strategy is applied to the behaviour of South China Sea states in their efforts to face the constant rise of China’s power as well as benefit from US presence and interests in this region. The goal of this study is to find out if the hedging strategy fits the behaviour of South China Sea states. The article is divided into four sections. In the first section, the concept of the hedging strategy is presented. The hedging strategy is comprised of three elements: engagement, soft balancing and enmeshing. The other sections of this article deal with these three elements in the region of the South China Sea. The initial idea is that the hedging strategy offers an alternative perspective on this challenge in the regi...

This project results from the International Research Forum Critical Dialogues on Pandemic Perspectives held on September 10th and 11th, 2020, in pursuant of the shared participants objectives, an online event attended by confirmed colleagues and friends from 16 countries. The International Online Congress “Critical Dialogues on Pandemic Perspectives: Global Justice, Rule of Law and Human Rights” comprises joined researchers efforts to promote international academic and scientific exchanging cooperation on the current global pandemic context on reflecting, thinking and scrutinizing government’s, public policies and decision-making process and innovation in the fighting against direct and collateral damages caused by the Covid-19’s social and institutional impacts, considering transnational implications to the political, economic and the rule of law systems from a Global Justice approach and, locally to human rights’ protection.

El nuevo paradigma establece una estrecha relación entre desarrollo humano y Seguridad Humana. El desarrollo humano procura aumentar las opciones, las oportunidades y el acceso de las personas a los servicios y bienes públicos y hace hincapié en lo que puede lograrse. La Seguridad Humana recalca los riesgos, peligros y amenazas que enfrenta el desarrollo humano, evalúa el grado de confianza que tienen las personas en los servicios y bienes públicos y subraya qué puede perderse
cuando se frustra el desarrollo del potencial humano.
Resulta afortunado el hecho de que la recién promulgada Ley
de Paz Total haya tomado en consideración el concepto de
Seguridad Humana y lo haya plasmado como prerrequisito
de la Paz Total.

Currently, we witness a volatile, polarized and destabilizing international security environment that has exposed us to the grey zones of war and peace. Security challenges arising from both hybrid threats and hybrid warfare (both multiple and synchronized threats that aim to target states’ vulnerabilities at different levels covering domains other than military) seem to have held front seat on the global security agenda thereby altering the relevance of nuclear deterrence. Deterrence is generally understood as an ability to dissuade a state from embarking upon a course of action prejudicial to one’s vital security interests, based on demonstrative capability. The nuclear deterrence theory, as propounded by Brodie (Brodie 1946, p. 76), which is grounded in political realism, enriches our thought process to comprehend the potential character of nuclear weapons. The focus of nuclear deterrence was on averting wars through the psychological manipulation of an adversary’s mind. Thus, it...

The shifting global order suggests arrival of the world away from the U.S.-led liberal unipolar order. The rise of the rest, notably, the Chinese vision reflected in its Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) has defied the U.S. global hegemony. For example, China’s growing wealth and power, Russia’s resurge and belligerence, Europe’s pursuit for strategic autonomy, India’s rise and its strategic balancing, turmoil in the Middle East and its inclination to Asia suggest a world slipping away from the U.S.-led hegemonic liberal order. The U.S., which once was a lead player, is unlikely to play its global leadership role to manage global governance alone, and even not China is yet close to replacing it. Thus, the argument is that the U.S. global hegemony is waning while the world has entered a new era of bumpier multipolarity with several interdependencies. Consequently, the balancers, not the hedgers and/ or bandwagoners will capitalize on the new world order. Pakistan’s security in this cont...

تهدف هذه المقالة إلى مناقشة آثار فيروس كورونا المستجد على اقتصاديات الدول العربية مع التركيز على تقييم كفاءة التدابير التي تم اتباعها من قبل الدول العربية لمجابهة الآثار الاقتصادية للجائحة، ونظرًا لحداثة الجائحة وعدم التيقن بتبعاتها، فقد اعتمدت المقالة على مقارنة السياسات المتوقع اتباعها بالسياسات التي تتبع عادة عند حدوث أزمات اقتصادية مع الأخذ في الاعتبار طبيعة اختلاف هذه الأزمة عن مثيلاتها السابقة، سواء من حيث الأسباب أو النطاق أو العمق، أو طول الفترة الزمنية، وتعرضت المقالة إلى ما تم اتباعه من سياسات وإجراءات لتقليل الأثر السلبي لهذا الفيروس على الاقتصاديات وآليات انتقال من خلال التأثير على القطاعات الاقتصادية المختلفة، وتقييم فاعلية هذه السياسات والإجراءات حتى الآن. كما تناولت المقالة السياسات والإجراءات المتوقع أن تتبعها الدول العربية في فترة ما بعد كورونا في الأجلين المتوسط والطويل للنهوض باقتصاديات الدول العربية ومعالجة الآثار الاجتماعية التي سببتها الأزمة. ورصدت المقالة الطبيعة الخاصة لهذه الأزمة، وارتفاع درجة عدم التيقن بخصوصها. وقارنت المقالة بين هذه الصدمة والصدمات السابق...

Human resource plays one of the important elements in developing an enterprise and the economy. This study aims to empirically analyse the determinants of professional competences of the employees working in the tourism industry in Bac Lieu province based on three criteria: knowledge, skills and attitude. The results from the survey of 183 tourists and 43 employees at the selected tourism sites in Bac Lieu province have showed that the employees’ competencehas to be associated with professional knowledge and tourist-related services. Besides regarding attitude factor, employees have to be professional, honest, and friendly. These determinants have not only shown the professional competences of employees, but also influenced to the servicerelated quality in this industry.

La construcción de Estado local es un proceso de relacionamiento entre las instituciones estatales y las comunidades basado en la legitimidad institucional. La tesis que se plantea es que la conciencia marítima nacional puede aportar en el proceso de construcción de Estado local en las zonas costeras e insulares. En el primer argumento se expone que afianza el relacionamiento institucional puesto que permite el conocimiento del Estado sobre las particularidades del territorio. Como segundo argumento, se indica que fortalece las capacidades de las instituciones para tomar decisiones ajustadas al ordenamiento jurídico y prestar servicios esenciales, mejorando su legitimidad. En el tercer argumento, se afirma que permite el reconocimiento de las potencialidades económicas de la zona costera e insular, generando propuestas de desarrollo acordes con sus singularidades.

THESIS TOPIC: THE EUROPEAN COMMUNITY AND AFRICAN, CARIBBEAN AND PACIFIC (ACP) COUNTRIES: POLITICAL, ECONOMIC AND LEGAL EFFECTS OF THE SINGLE EUROPEAN ACT (SEA) 1986 ON POST-1992 ECONOMIC RELATIONS. This thesis is an attempt to examine in full the likely impact of the SEA 1986 on the economic relationship between the EC and the ACP. It begins with a historical introduction to their economic relationship and an analysis of the various Yaounde and Lome Conventions that were signed between the two blocs. An attempt is then made to look at the likely impact of the SEA, with a fully-implemented Single European Market (SEM) after 1992, on their present economic relations from a legal as well as an economic perspective. In particular, the likely effects of the GATT negotiations at the Uruguay Round will be examined. Other questions concerning the monetary arrangements between France and her 13 excolonies in Africa under the CPA Franc Zone arrangement, as well as the enduring problem of huge...

Improving the performance of public sector is the goal that is high on the policy agenda in almost all industrialized countries. Policy makers in individual countries are increasingly aware of the need to know how they are doing relative to the competition. But, the measuring public performance is not an easy task. One problem with such an analysis is the rather arbitrary selection of criteria, which necessarily affects the results.

Recently, strong arguments have been offered for the inclusion ofjus post bellumin just war theory. If this addition is indeed justified, it is plain that, due to the variety in types of post-conflict situation, the content ofjus post bellumwill necessarily vary. One instance when it looks as if it should become “extended” in its scope, ranging well beyond (for example) issues of “just peace terms,” is when occupation of a defeated enemy is necessary. In this situation, this article argues that an engagement byjus post bellumwith the morality of post-conflict reconstruction is unavoidable. However, the resulting extension ofjus post bellum's stipulations threatens to generate conflict with another tenet that it would surely wish to endorse with respect to “just occupation,” namely, that sovereignty or self-determination should be restored to the occupied people as soon as is reasonably possible. Hence, the action-guiding objective of the theory could become significantly problem...

Since centuries, geographical constraints continued to cause serious impediments to the development of Balochistan. Even the British, who ruled India for two centuries because of their intelligence and administrative skills, could hardly contribute anything towards the development of this province. Unfortunately, even after independence, the province remained at the discretion of 'Sardars,' who were more sincere to themselves rather than the public. Thus, the successive regimes both in the centre as well as in the province stand responsible to the backwardness of Balochistan. Though General Musharraf's regime took bold initiatives and launched a number of mega projects, yet many of them were shelved by the last government because of multifarious reasons including incompetence, corruption, resource constraints and most importantly the security challenges. Even the initiatives like NFC Award failed to make any material difference because of the corrupt practices. While sec...

Установлено, що проактивна модель підзвітності CompStat є підходом до стратегічного вирішення проблем у діяльності правоохоронних органів, які функціонують у динамічному операційному середовищі. Зазначена модель сформувалася під впливом розвитку засад управління із досвіду комерційного сектору. Модель управління правоохоронними органами CompStat сформувалась у США на початку 1990 років та набула значного поширення через доведену спроможність підвищувати ефективність упереджувальної (профілактичної) правоохоронної діяльності. Визначено, що підґрунтям для розроблення та імплементації моделі підзвітності CompStat стали зміни, породжені формуванням поглиблених знань про злочинність та про те, що орієнтована на вирішення проблем правоохоронна практика є більш ефективною порівняно із традиційною реактивною формою організації діяльності. Також модель CompStat базувалась на розвинутій на той час спроможності аналітично опрацьовувати великі та надвеликі обсяги криміногенних даних завдяки фун...