Closing the Window of Vulnerability: Nuclear Proliferation and Conventional Retaliation

Living with a nuclear-armed enemy is unattractive, but, strangely, states seldom use their military power to prevent the enemy’s entry into the nuclear club. It is puzzling why preventive strikes against nuclear programs have been quite rare. I address this puzzle by considering the role of conventional retaliation, a subfield of deterrence that so far has received scant attention in the literature. I theorize the concept of conventional retaliation and test its explanatory power. First, I explore all historical cases where states struck another state’s nuclear installations and find none occurring when the proliferator threatened conventional retaliation. Second, I explore two cases where a strike was most likely, but the would-be attacker balked and find smoking-gun evidence that the threat of conventional retaliation restrained the would-be attacker. This evidence supports my claim that the threat of conventional retaliation is sufficient to deter a preventive strike against emerging nuclear states.     

Global Constitutionalism: Editorial Introduction

Netherlands International Law Review -     

An Aquatic Decomposition Scoring Method to Potentially Predict the Postmortem Submersion Interval of Bodies Recovered from the North Sea

This study aimed to develop an aquatic decomposition scoring (ADS) method and investigated the predictive value of this method in estimating the postmortem submersion interval (PMSI) of bodies recovered from the North Sea. This method, consisting of an ADS item list and a pictorial reference atlas, showed a high interobserver agreement (Krippendorff's alpha ≥ 0.93) and hence proved to be valid. This scoring method was applied to data, collected from closed cases—cases in which the postmortal submersion interval (PMSI) was known—concerning bodies recovered from the North Sea from 1990 to 2013. Thirty‐eight cases met the inclusion criteria and were scored by quantifying the observed total aquatic decomposition score (TADS). Statistical analysis demonstrated that TADS accurately predicts the PMSI (p < 0.001), confirming that the decomposition process in the North Sea is strongly correlated to time.     

Multiple Giant Coronary Artery Aneurysms: A Rare Cause of Sudden Cardiac Death

Multiple giant aneurysms involving the coronary arteries are uncommon and rarely reported. In the presented case, a 63‐year‐old man with poorly controlled hypertension died suddenly. Gross autopsy examination showed multiple giant thrombus‐filled coronary artery aneurysms, atherosclerotic coronary artery disease, and cardiomegaly. Histological sections of the coronary aneurysms showed atherosclerotic changes with both organized and fresh thrombus. Giant coronary aneurysm is defined as a segmental enlargement of a coronary artery with a diameter exceeding 20 mm or more. The main etiology of this nebulous entity is attributed to atherosclerosis and inflammatory or inherited connective tissue disorders with the remainder being congenital, infectious, or idiopathic. Before its cataclysmic presentation, when ruptured or thrombosed, giant coronary aneurysm usually has a silent clinical course. Sudden death owing to giant multiple coronary aneurysms is rare and mandates careful classification of the aneurysms and prudent search for autoimmune‐mediated or genetically based factors for subsequent ancillary autopsy studies.