Citizenship and preemptive war: The lesson from Iraq

This paper argues that citizens should be wary of a policy of Reformed Preemption such as is found in the National Security Strategy of the United States. This policy is too permissive with regard to the use of force and it suffers from epistemological difficulties. The war in Iraq is examined in an effort to see how the new policy of Reformed Preemption will be employed in practice. This case shows us two risks of the new policy: it permits wars even when the threats are vague and merely potential; and it allows for disproportionate use of force.     

The construction of NATO's medium term defence plan and the diplomacy of conventional strategy, 1949-50

This article examines NATO's first strategic project, the Medium Term Defence Plan (MTDP) of 1950, and the plan that led to the 1952 Lisbon Force Goals, a landmark in the evolution of NATO's strategic thinking because the failure to reach the Lisbon goals allegedly drove NATO into its subsequent dependence on nuclear weapons from which it has never been weaned. The article disputes this interpretation by showing that the MTDP was conditioned by the desire of the United States to maintain its autonomy over the use of atomic weapons, and its freedom from the constraints of the new alliance. The MTDP was a paradox: a conventional strategy designed to mask the rules governing the balance of decision-making power within NATO which maintained American peripheralism against the integrative pressures of the alliance. Lisbon was actually part of a deepening nuclear commitment on the part of the United States, sustained by the willingness of the Europeans to endorse the rearmament plan in exchange for promises of further economic assistance.     

Ukraine's Orange Revolution,NGOs and the Role of the West*

This article examines the role of Western support for domestic non-governmental organisations during the 2004 Ukrainian election and the Orange Revolution. It critically assesses the thesis that Western support and the groups who received Western money were overly biased towards a particular candidate, namely Viktor Yushchenko.     

Uses Of Blood: Re-Reading Matt. 27:25

‘The entire people cry out, “His blood be on us and on our children.”’ Is this the epochal ‘no’ of Israel renouncing its birthright? The legal precedent is not in delict but in contract, in treaties and covenants in which an entire people bind themselves and their descendants, their entire nation, in perpetuity by an imprecatory curse-oath identifying themselves and their descendants with a blood sacrifice that seals the contract. Legally, treaties and covenants require contemporaneous ratification. The author of Matthew’s gospel obtains the acclamations of the other actors, Pilate, the soldiers, the chief priests, scribes and elders and from the sign atop the cross by the formulaic talisman, ‘King of the Jews’ or ‘Israel’s King’ that each recite. He obtains the crowd’s acclamation from Pilate using together the words ‘Christ’ (Messiah) and ‘blood’ and employing a Jewish hand washing ritual. The purpose of the hand washing ritual was to forgive Israel for the guilt of innocent blood. However, Pilate uses this ritual meant to forgive Israel for its extreme opposite perverse purpose to condemn Israel. But the crowd uses the words ‘blood on’ in a different sense that evades Pilate’s request. ‘Blood on’ in the sacrificial system meant acceptance of a sacrificial blood offering.     

Imperial stormtroopers, art works, and copyright defences

A sculpture and a work of artistic craftsmanship can only becreated where the author has an artistic purpose to the creation,otherwise what is created is a design with protection of limitedduration.