Rules of War

This chapter considers the sinking of Japanese hellships carrying prisoners of war such as the Montevideo Maru and Rakuyo Maru within the wider context of the global war. It discusses international law, efforts by the Red Cross to protect prisoners transported by sea, and the ramifications for POWs - of all sides, in the Atlantic and the Pacific - of the practice of unrestricted submarine warfare in the Second World War.

""En Filipo II y el Arte de la Guerra tendremos la oportunidad de conocer en profundidad a uno de los más grandes reyes de la antigua Macedonia. Gracias a su habilidad como estratega, diplomático, político y soldado, heredó un reino pobre, débil y acosado por innumerables enemigos y lo transformó en el más poderoso de toda Grecia.

A lo largo de sus páginas podremos conocer la historia del reino Macedonio, desde sus orígenes míticos hasta la formación de un imperio, de la mano del que, a la postre, se convertiría en el padre del mítico Alejandro Magno y en el forjador de un nuevo ejército que cambiaria el devenir de la guerra en la Antigüedad. Filipo II fue el creador de la falange macedonia, formación que se demostraría como inigualable en el campo de batalla y que reportaría incontables victorias sobre poderosos enemigos, como los ilirios, los tesalios, los tracios, los beocios o los atenienses. Pero no sólo eso, logró integrar en el campo de batalla a la infantería y a la caballería para emplearlos en nuevas formaciones tácticas: armó a sus soldados con las míticas sarissas y apreció como pocos las posibilidades militares que la maquinaria de guerra podía proporcionarle, siendo el mecenas de numerosos avances en este campo. Soñó con conquistar el Imperio persa, cuando ya había logrado lo que nadie antes fue capaz: el control de Grecia.

Sólo la muerte le arrebató esa hazaña, pero sentó las bases de lo que más tarde conseguiría su propio hijo. Su figura levantó tanto odios como pasiones; se le conocía como mujeriego y bebedor, pero también por su habilidad para la oratoria, por sus astucia, determinación y valor. Siempre luchó en primera línea junto a sus soldados y nunca permitió que éstos le llamaran rey, sino solo "General".

A deeply touching and painfully thoughtful expose on the plight of women in Afghanistan, analyzed through the creative lens of Maryam Mahboob's writing. While any political analysis that utilizes literature as its chief source has to be by default analysis through microcosm-anecdotal and intensively minute in everyday life detail-this book is also organized across very important macro-themes, like politics, women's issues, war, radicalization, exile, and identity. Utilizing this structure allows the words at the micro-level to easily connect to the macro-level of international affairs, conflict, and peacebuilding. There is no doubt the true purpose of the work is to bring the reader deep into the psychological conflict and personal turmoil suffered by women throughout the horrific tumult that describes Afghani life and politics for nearly four decades that is seen in Mahboob's works. But it also serves as a powerful launching point for readers who want to pursue the bigger issues that the work takes on, including diaspora dilemmas, gender studies, and religious radicalization's impact on civil society. The chapters could be better organized to maximize that impact but this is a minor quibble. Since its founding as a monthly collection of recommended titles more than 50 years ago, Choice has become the go-to source for librarians seeking worthwhile new titles for their collection. Our publication offers approximately 600 reviews every month, identifying the best new books and digital content in academia. With more than 2,400 institutions served worldwide, Choice is the premier review journal of new academic titles. Choice is the publishing branch of the Association of College & Research Libraries, a division of the American Library Association. Together, Choice and the ACRL provide professional development tools for librarianship. Our webinars, bibliographic essays, and digital publications help librarians strengthen their skills, and further their careers.

LABform
LAB Group
LAB Group Pty Ltd
LAB Group Services Pty Ltd
EV
EIDV
Electronic Verification
Electronic Identity Verification
AML
CTF
KYC
Know Your Customer
Customer Acquisition
Customer On-boarding
Customer Registration
Anti-Money Laundering
Counter-Terrorism Financing

"Cosmopolitanism in international affairs is a body of thinking and practice committed to building a more just and sustainable international order, but it has never been systematically applied to the question or practice of security. This article argues that both a range of transnational (event-based and systemic) insecurities, and state abuses of security discourse to compromise rights and cause insecurity, create a compelling normative and empirical case for a new security paradigm: security cosmopolitanism. It would aim to critique and reform both national and collective security policies and processes: to put better norms and ends to them, redefine their ontological foundations, and generate guiding ethical principles. It does so in the service of a distinctive understanding of global security as a universal good: one in which the security of all states and all human beings is of equal weight, in which causal chains and processes spread widely across space and through time, and in which security actors bear a responsibility to consider the global impact of their choices.

This article lays out the key ontological and ethical frameworks for security cosmopolitanism. These challenge the dominant ontological foundations of national security (and international society) anchored in the social contract between citizen and state. Security cosmopolitanism argues that states cannot contain and immunize the national social body from external threats; rather, insecurity arises in a borderless way from the very histories, choices, powers, and systems of modernity. This generates both a new analytical model for global security and a different – relational, networked, and future-oriented – ethic of responsibility."

Phronetic organizational research is an approach to the study of management and organizations focusing on ethics and power. It is based on a contemporary interpretation of the Aristotelian concept phronesis, usually as ‘prudence’. Phronesis is the ability to think and act in relation to values, to deliberate about ‘things that are good or bad for humans’ in the words of Aristotle (1976:1140a24–b12). Phronetic organizational research effectively provides answers to the following four value-rational questions, for specific problematics in management and organization studies: 1. Where are we going with this specific management problematic? 2. Who gains and who loses, and by which mechanisms of power? 3. Is this development desirable? 4. What, if anything, should we do about it?

Chapter 13, Kevin H. Govern: OPERATION NEPTUNE SPEAR: WAS KILLING BIN LADEN A LEGITIMATE MILITARY OBJECTIVE?

My assertion in this chapter is that bin Laden was a legitimate military target, and that the decision-makers involved in his killing had thoroughly considered the range of options available to stop bin Laden from further terroristic acts, and were warranted in the decision to lean towards targeted killing in lieu of a capture operation. I thus conclude that those who carried out the killing were within their scope of authority and responsibility for killing rather than for capturing bin Laden. Th e
structure of the operation, then, and the set of moral prohibitions operating on any such plan, should in theory not require new rules or new law of war prescripts. This holds true, despite the short- and long-term implications of this use of force. What is critical is an abiding and firm moral force underlying this and every other form of warfare, regardless of any minor or significant changes to the legal or operational
framework in which it may be undertaken.
Section I will examine the political and military necessity considerations that gave rise to the Neptune Spear “capture or kill” decision-making process at the very highest echelons of the Executive Branch, with the evolution of political will,
expressed into military directive, reflecting a careful analysis of authority and opportunity to end bin Laden’s reign of terror. This will afford us an opportunity to distinguish between those who can be the permissible subject of “targeted killing”
and those who cannot. Section II considers the operational and legal foundation for undertaking a war against one person via targeted killing. As to the targeted killing of bin Laden, this section will show the operation to be on a continuum
of legitimate, operational options, from pursuit and capture under warrant-based targeting. Section III examines the moral foundations of foregoing war in favor of more isolated military operations, such as is involved in targeted killing. Section
IV concludes with an examination of how the polarizing paradigm of Neptune Spear affects not only current contexts of counterterrorism operations but how it will shape U.S. and international political will to accept targeted killing over capture
and prosecution, not just out of political pragmatism and military necessity, but as an emergent norm of customary international law.

The Caspian Project is a weekly digital magazine organized by the online analytical resource, Modern Diplomacy. Dr. Matthew Crosston is the Senior Editor of the project, which aims to acquaint people with this critically undervalued region of the world. The analyses go far beyond the standard issue of energy and encapsulates economics, politics, culture, religion, global affairs, conflict and peace.

This edition of the Caspian Project testifies to the enormous wealth of analytical opportunity seen all across the region. While in the past we have enjoyed producing single-issue specializations (which we did over the past two weeks with The Russian Debate and The Persian Gambit, to great fanfare and applause), the true essence of the Project is to have great diversity for the readers every issue. No. 11 as it turns out is something of a hybrid of these two aspects: readers with this issue get quite a bit of diversity while also getting to enjoy a mini-specialization, as a number of the articles inside deal with different aspects of the Russian intelligence community, namely, the Federal Security Service or FSB.

So, on top of some very thought-provoking and hard-hitting articles dealing with the ethics, surveillance, and transnational activities of Russian intelligence, readers ALSO get to learn more in this issue about the Shanghai Cooperation Organization, Turkmenistan’s human rights record, and Kazakhstan’s entrance into the WTO. It is an issue, therefore, that cuts across domestic politics, global affairs, security, economics, and international organizations. This is something we at Modern Diplomacy hold dearly when it comes to the Caspian Project: so much that is happening in the world today, affecting so many countries, transects in one way or another the greater Caspian sea region. It shall always be a hub of activity and importance, far beyond the standard call about energy and natural resources.

The use of drones and other forms of targeted killings are being increasingly criticized at the international and domestic level. Before the backdrop of the most recent news that the United Nations has launched an inquiry into the overall legality of such a method of warfare and counter-terrorism and its associated loss of civilian life, this article aims to give an overview on targeted killings as a means of warfare. The article asks what constitutes targeted killing and what distinguishes it from assassinations. It reflects on the safeguards, which are necessary to ensure the legality of the targeting process. This article further introduces the reader to an updated account of the use of Unmanned Combat Aircraft Systems, or ‘drones’, in targeted killings, employed as a means of warfare by the US in its ‘War on Terror’. The US drone campaign in Pakistan also raises questions in respect to State Sovereignty and potential violations of this central tenet of International Law. The article will also touch upon another field of global security, so called ‘Hybrid Threats’, where the use of targeted killing may have an operational military benefit as part of a holistic counterstrategy. It concludes with a sobering warning that while targeted killing operations may be an effective means of achieving short term tactical goals within the scope of a wider operational objective, the unregulated and increased use of targeting killings by the US in the ‘War on Terror’ would be both immoral as well as illegal in the long run.

Dieser Beitrag behandelt die Herausbildung eines wesentlichen Elements der österreichischen Sicherheitsarchitektur: Des Einsatzkommandos Cobra (EKO-Cobra). Seine Entstehung war eine direkte Folge der Konfrontation Österreichs mit dem internationalen Terrorismus. Unter der Bezeichnung „Gendarmeriekommando Bad Vöslau“ 1973 gegründet, war die Einheit zunächst ausschließlich für den Schutz osteuropäischer Juden zuständig, die über Österreich nach Israel emigrierten. Der RAF-Terrorismus lieferte 1977/78 den Impuls für den Ausbau zum Gendarmerieeinsatzkommando (GEK), einer für das gesamte Bundesgebiet zuständigen Spezialeinheit. Auf Basis von Primärquellen und Interviews mit Zeitzeugen wird diese schrittweise Etablierung von Antiterrorkapazitäten in Österreich  rekonstruiert und in engen Zusammenhang mit der terroristischen Bedrohung in den 1970er Jahren gestellt, um so die Genese vom Gendarmeriekommando Bad Vöslau zur „Cobra“ nachzuvollziehen.

Expert report submitted to the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia regarding the statistical reliability of estimated relationships between the deaths and migration of Kosovo Albanians and the activities of NATO and the Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA).  Evaluated statistical reliability of conclusions that Serb and Yugoslav forces were involved in a systematic campaign of murder and deportation of Kosovo Albanians.

The waters around the Senkaku Islands have been home to an undeclared, "Cold", War, with Chinese state vessels (plus fishermen and "activists") often trying to penetrate them, and Japanese Coastguard boats out to prevent it. Both sides have abstained from using lethal force, resorting to ramming and water cannons, among others. The advent of the airplane, however, threatens to destabilize the situation. One can stop a ship without risking death or injury to the crew, but this is much more difficult with planes and helicopters. The paper explores the changing strategic environment due to the emerging use by China of air assets in the area.

The process of transformation of the Russian military, under way since 2008, is intended to turn the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation from the atrophied remnant of the Soviet Armed Forces into a usable military tool for the 21st century. This includes radical reform of command and control systems at all levels up to the supreme command.



Previous conclusions on the nature of post-Soviet Russian military command and control systems may therefore no longer be valid. This is significant for Russia's overseas partners who wish to understand the nature of a potential Russian reaction to any challenge which can be interpreted as a military threat.



In particular, understanding of the division of responsibilities between the Ministry of Defence and the General Staff needs to be updated following the dramatic contraction of both bodies and redistribution of their functions.



The emergence of the Security Council of the Russian Federation as an additional body exerting control over the military also needs to be considered, when examining how decisions affecting the Armed Forces are made at the highest level.



Lower down the chain of command, the creation of the new Joint Strategic Commands also bears directly on the nature of decision-making on employment of forces, in ways which appear still debatable even within Russia but which are of critical importance for close neighbours of Russia.



The example of the early stages of armed conflict in Georgia in August 2008 could suggest that the Joint Strategic Commands are in part intended to ensure closer control over small units, in order to reduce the potential for independent and uncontrolled activity.



This paper seeks to introduce the new landscape of military decision-making in Russia, in order to raise key questions over the nature of the new command and control systems which are critical for a full understanding of how, when and in what manner Russia's Armed Forces may be used in the future.

"Savaş Kuramları – Temel Düşünürler ve Yaklaşımlar" çalışmamız savaşa dair bir tarih kitabı formatında hazırlanmamıştır; tam aksine savaşı farklı açılardan anlamak için düşünürlerin yaklaşımını bir araya getiren bir kılavuz kitap olarak tasarlanmıştır. Dolayısıyla farklı düşünürlerden ve kültürlerden yola çıkarak savaşa olan bakış açılarının bir harmanlamasını yapmak istiyoruz. Bunu yaparken de uluslararası ilişkiler disiplinine Türkçe literatür katkısında bulunmak arzusundayız. Akademik literatürde uzmanlık alanında bağlı olarak Türkçemizi geliştirmek için uluslararası akademik teamüllere uygun olarak diğer sosyal bilimler branşlarından terminolojik destek almak (ekonomi, siyaset bilimi, iletişim, sosyoloji, vs.) çabasına girdik. Savaş gibi karmaşık bir konuyu tek bir teknik dille anlatmak yeterli değildir. Bu çaba-mızı ortaya koyarken özellikle İngilizce terminolojiyi de aktarmaya özen gösterdik, çünkü Türkçemizde yer alan birçok kuramsal çalışmada farklı terminolojik girişimlerle bir anlaşılmazlık sorunu karşımıza çıkıyor. Bu sorunu aşmak için uluslararası teknik literatürü de aktarmanın böylesi kapsamlı bir çalışmada zorunluluk olduğunu düşündük. 
Türkçemize akademik katkının ötesinde bu çalışmamızla sizlere geniş bir kaynakça olanağını da sunmayı amaçladık. Gerek ilgili düşünürlerden yola çıkarak gerekse ele aldıkları temaların ve tartışmaların çerçevesini aktararak bu konularda uzman olanları ve olmak isteyenleri yönlendirmek istedik. 
Kitabımız, Galatasaray Üniversitesi Uluslararası İlişkiler doktora programında yer alan Savaş Kuramları dersinden ilham alarak başlamış bir çabanın ürünüdür. Konuya ilişkin Türkçe kuramsal literatürün sınırlı olması bizlere böyle bir ihtiyacı hissettirmiştir. Dolayısıyla davranış-salcı bir çalışma metoduyla, sadece güvenlik ya da realist eksenlere odaklanmadan, çoğulcu görüşlere açık, dinamik ve genç akademisyenlerle yola çıkarak savaşı tanımlama ve tartışma adına eserleri ve görüşleriyle destek vermiş, çığır açmış ve entelektüel bir miras bırakmış düşünürler ve kuramcıları bu kitabımızda ele almak istedik.
Bu çerçevede kitabımız üç kısımdan oluşmaktadır. Öncelikle birinci kısımda Antik çağlardan yakın çağlara kadar uzanan tarih dilimine damgasını vurmuş, savaş ve strateji konusunu ele almış temel düşünürleri Klasik tartışmalar: Mutlak Savaş ve Stratejik Düşünce başlığı altında yer vermeye çalışıyoruz. Bu kapsamda bu düşünürleri detaylı olarak inceleyen ve tartışan akademisyenler ile araştırmacıları da ele almak istiyoruz. İkinci kısım çerçevesinde modern düşüncelere odaklanarak, Gelenekselcilikten Davranışsalcılığa; Sistem, Devlet ve Savaş başlığıyla, 20. yüzyılın ikinci yarısında, özellikle de Soğuk Savaş yıllarında realizm ve davranışsalcılığın ağır bastığı, gelenekselci görüşlere odaklanan ve tartışan düşünürleri incelemekteyiz. Üçüncü kısımımız tamamen farklı bir açıyı ele almaktadır: Savaşın Bilimsel Etüdü: Nedenler ve Korelasyonlar başlığı altında J.D. Singer ile başlayan salt davranışsalcı bakış açısıyla savaşın nedenselliğinden yola çıkarak süreci analiz eden ve kantitatif modellendirmelere yer veren düşünürleri ve araştırmacıları kapsamaktayız. Bu çerçevede Oyun teorisinden rekabete, Demokratik barıştan uluslararası krizlere kadar uzanan farklı kuramsal yaklaşımlarla günümüz akademik dünyasının tartışmalarını ve araştırmalarını sizlere aktarmak çabasındayız.

The political reality of many countries in the Muslim World is untenable and reforms and change is absolutely necessary. This article argues that use of force and violence for political change is making things worse as one can witness in Syria and Iraq. The article advances a Qur'ānic perspective on the desirability of peace as a goal and peaceful means as instruments of change. The article acknowledges that the Qur'ānic sanction for use of force to defend religious freedom prcludes the advocacy of pacifism but nevertheless the article does make a strong case for privileging peace over use of force.

"This book offers annotated translations of documents touching on Dutch admiral Cornelis Matelieff de Jonge and his voyage to Asia between 1605 and 1608. These translations are aimed at a contemporary English-speaking Asian readership interested in the early modern history of European trade, warfare and expansion in Southeast Asia with a focus on Malaysia, Singapore, and Indonesia. Researchers specialising in early European colonialism, international law, international relations, security studies, and diplomatic history will also find that the documents translated in this volume offer new and unfamiliar perspectives. Materlieff’s business acumen, military and diplomataic prowess as well as his vision of empire all have implications for examining not only European expansion into Southeast Asia, but also into other regions at large, including especially south Asia, Africa and the Americas.
Admiral Matelieff was a director of the Rotterdam Chamber of the Dutch East India Company (VOC) formed in 1602. He was appointed fleet commander on one of the company’s first voyages to Asia. Matelieff’s mission was both commercial and military: he launched a major sea-borne attack on the Portuguese colony of Melaka, arranged for the signing of treaties with the rulers of Johor, Aceh and Ternate, and founded the first Dutch fort on the island of Ternate. His endeavours, however, to open the Chinese market for the Dutch company proved unsuccessful.
Following his return to the Dutch Republic in September 1608, Matelieff penned a series of memorials and letters. In these he advanced recommendations for changing the way the company organized its fleets and conducted business. More importantly he offered  his Dutch contemporaries a vision of empire in Asia. The materials contained in this volume offer important observations of a perceptive analyst who was also determined to grasp the political and economic structures of Asia, and also of inter-state relations in across this vast region. At a time of Spanish, Portuguese, Dutch, Danish, French and English engagement in Southeast Asia, Matelieff sought to critically assess and strategize on the ways in which Europeans were increasingly engaging with Asian polities and their rulers.

This book will be released for sale in Australasia and Europe in June 2014 and available in the Americas after September 2014
""""

In the early morning hours of 24 February 2022, Russia invaded Ukraine. Leaders from around the world have condemned this as an illegal act of aggression. The following day, Karim Khan, the Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court issued a statement that he has been “closely following recent developments in and around Ukraine with increasing concern.” As many know, in 2017, the ICC activated its jurisdiction over the crime of aggression. So perhaps it is worth asking, in light of this apparent act of aggression and the ICC Prosecutor’s warning, whether aggression charges could be brought against Russian president Vladimir Putin and his leadership coterie, in reference to the invasion of Ukraine.

As we will explain, notwithstanding an existing Ukrainian self-referral of jurisdiction to the ICC in respect of war crimes and crimes against humanity in reference to an earlier Russian incursion, as well as the opening of an investigation, the recent invasion will not allow the ICC to expand its case to include potential charges of aggression. Nevertheless, might an aggression case against Putin and his associates be brought via universal jurisdiction in a domestic court or via the jurisdiction of a specially created ad hoc international criminal tribunal? Those questions are grappled with below as well.

Gregory S. Gordon is a professor at The Chinese University of Hong Kong Faculty of Law, where he formerly served as Associate Dean and Director of the Research Postgraduates Programs. Before joining the legal academy, Professor Gordon worked as a prosecutor with the US Department of Justice and the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda. From May-June 2010, he represented the International League for Human Rights (the oldest human rights NGO in the US) at the ICC Kampala Review conference and offered expert advice in negotiations that resulted in amendments related to the crime of aggression and war crimes. He was at UN Headquarters representing the ILHR in December 2017 when the ICC Assembly of States Parties activated the Court’s aggression jurisdiction, and he serves on the Global Institute for the Prevention of Aggression’s Council of Advisers. Professor Gordon has published scholarly works on the  aggression offense and is currently writing the biography of one of the key figures in the movement to criminalize  aggression, former Nuremberg prosecutor Benjamin Ferencz.

Giovanni Chiarini is currently a Visiting Researcher at the Centre for Criminal Justice and Human Rights, UCC University College (Cork, Ireland) and at the Centre for Critical Legal Studies at the University of Warwick (Coventry, England), as well as an International Fellow of the National Institute of Military Justice (Washington DC). Giovanni is an Attorney (Bar Council of Piacenza, Italy) admitted as Assistant to Counsel (Conseils Adjoints) to the International Criminal Court list, and a PhD candidate at Insubria University (Como, Italy). Former Visiting Fellow at the Université Côte d’Azur (Nice, France) and at the Institute for International Peace and Security Law at Universität zu Köln (Cologne,Germany), he has received invitations as a Visiting Scholar to the Centre for International and Global Law at the University of Edinburgh (Scotland) and to the Center for Military Law of the TTU Texas Tech University (USA).

This is an open access book available at: https://library.oapen.org/handle/20.500.12657/51045

In 1603, Dutch Admiral Jacob van Heemskerk plundered a Portuguese merchantman, the Santa Catarina, travelling from Macao to Melaka. The sale of the cargo at a public auction made traders across Northern Europe aware of the riches to be reaped from Asian trade. However, the episode raised legal questions and the United Dutch East India Company (VOC) commissioned the young Hugo Grotius to defend Heemskerk's actions. Grotius produced two classic legal texts, The Law of Price and Booty and its spin-off, The Free Sea, among the greatest works in the history of international legal and political thought. His observations dealt with free trade in the East Indies, the Dutch Republic's military conflict with the Portuguese and Spanish in Asia, and the legal and moral grounds for attacking and plundering Portuguese and Spanish mercantile shipping.

This book considers the background to the treaties then content and significances, and what Grotius actually knew about Southeast Asian politics and Portuguese institutions of trade and diplomacy when he wrote them.

Grotius' work on the freedom of the sea was a cornerstone in his enduring reputation as one of the founders of modern international law. The present book provides a valuable resource for historians of Southeast Asia and for students of international relations, political theory, maritime history and public law.
"""""

The study focuses on the republican murals painted on the walls of two cities, Belfast and Derry, in May 2009. The idea for the study was born during a trip to Northern Ireland during which I had the opportunity to observe the murals and to talk with some of the authors and with persons who had actually experienced
the events represented in the murals.
The nationalist murals have been studied by the author under different perspectives: language, iconography, political symbolism and social environment. Murals are, for sure, the community’s reaction to the British political and violent domination on Northern Ireland and they become instruments of rebellion representing
a collective request for freedom and independence. But they also represent a more complex phenomenon as they embody values and perspectives of the entire nationalist community in Northern Ireland. The study analyses the murals both as single artworks and as a collective phenomenon.A strong focus is given at all the political and social themes represented in the murals and at the different linguistic and iconographic styles of communication
as well as how different themes and styles combine. The nationalist murals are also examined under an artistic perspective with a special focus on the figure of the “artista armato”, the artist as a warrior that uses art as an instrument for communicating higher, collective (moral, social, religious, political) values. This
perspective brings the author to draw and analyse a parallel between the phenomenon of nationalist murals and Futurist art: a comparison based on the themes represented in the artworks, on the placing of the art pieces and on the social role of the artists.
If words, pictures and colours used in the nationalist murals become, as analysed in the study, the voice of the Catholic community in Northern Ireland, a voice not so often listened in the EU, it becomes crucial to understand what the artists
want to communicate, why and how. This study aims also to open up to a new research perspective based on a multidisciplinary approach through the integrated use of semiotics and semantics in ethnography in order to offer a more complete and holistic interpretation of the phenomenon of the Northern Irish republican
murals.

This paper focuses on the impact of the war and subsequent occupation (2003–2011) on Iraq’s heritage, documenting the most significant and devastating instances of heritage damage and destruction that occurred. Moving forward, this chapter continues with a discussion of the grave challenges facing Iraqi heritage beyond the withdrawal of US military forces in the form of various groups - from jihadist networks such as the 'Islamic State' through to various sectarian actors. It also discusses the threat to heritage sites from development, neglect, and inexpert and haphazard excavation, preservation, protection, and restoration. Despite this troubling scenario, this chapter also examines the extent to which the Iraq conflict was a turning point for major Western military operations and the development of CPP programs which aim to better prepare military personnel for protecting cultural property in future conflicts.

On February 3, 2015 a video emerged online showing the young Jordanian airforce pilot Muath Al-Kasasbeh being burnt to death by “Islamic State of Iraq and Shām” affiliates (ISIS or IS). Another IS live burning video was released on December 22, 2016, this time of two Turkish prisoners of war. IS quoted the Syrian theologian Ibn Taymiyya in support of the licitness of the publicized burning alive of war captives as revenge and intimidation. The same argument was developed in prior and concurrent pro-IS literature and fatwas online and in print. This book shows that such an argument, fatwas, and act are in fact unislamic and have no basis whatsoever in the Qur’ān, the authentic Sunna and acts of the Companions, or Islamic law in its totality, and that the burning of enemy captives, whether for retaliation, deterrence, or any other reason, is forbidden by consensus in the rulings pertaining to the conduct of war.

Just war theory − as advanced by Michael Walzer, among others − fails to take war seriously enough. This is because it proposes that we regulate war with systematic rules that are comparable to those of a game. Three types of claims are advanced. The first is phenomenological: that the theory's abstract nature interferes with our judgment of what is, and should be, going on. The second is meta-ethical: that the theory's rules are not, in fact, systematic after all, there being inherent contradictions between them. And the third is practical: that by getting people to view war as like a game, the theory promotes its ‘aestheticization’ (play being a central mode of the aesthetic) such that those who fight are encouraged to act in dangerous ways. And war, it goes without saying, is already dangerous enough.

Drawing from their history of pro-Lebanon military support and origins associated therein, their formal entrance into the Lebanese government in 1992 and subsequent political actions and policies, and their social welfare and infrastructure based programs; Hezbollah has been able to effectively establish itself as a significant and influential faction to become a force of moderate Islamic representation for the people of Lebanon.

The use of elephants for military purposes was, for centuries, one of the most important military arms of the armies in the Antiquity. Although, these could get to suppose so many advantages as drawbacks and, for this reason, they were since then denominated by the classic authors as “the common enemy”.