Effectiveness of Single‐Nucleotide Polymorphisms to Investigate Cattle Rustling

Short tandem repeats (STR)s have been the eligible markers for forensic animal genetics, despite single‐nucleotide polymorphisms (SNP)s became acceptable. The technology, the type, and amount of markers could limit the investigation in degraded forensic samples. The performance of a 32‐SNP panel genotyped through OpenArrays^TM (real‐time PCR based) was evaluated to resolve cattle‐specific forensic cases. DNA from different biological sources was used, including samples from an alleged instance of cattle rustling. SNPs and STRs performance and repeatability were compared. SNP call rate was variable among sample type (average = 80.18%), while forensic samples showed the lowest value (70.94%). The repeatability obtained (98.7%) supports the used technology. SNPs had better call rates than STRs in 12 of 20 casework samples, while forensic index values were similar for both panels. In conclusion, the 32‐SNPs used are as informative as the standard bovine STR battery and hence are suitable to resolve cattle rustling investigations.     

Moving towards a European Defence Industry? The Political Discourse on a Changing Reality and its Implications for the Future of the European Union

Since the Maastricht Treaty in 1992 the European Union has been an increasingly important actor in the field of security and defence. However, the defence industries sector has largely been kept away from Brussels. This has usually been justified by the role that national defence industries have traditionally played as fundamental pillars for the survival of the European nation-states, thus making them reluctant to share this “sovereign tool” with the European Union. Nonetheless, recent steps in both the economic (large number of mergers and acquisitions within the European defence industry sector) and the political (security and defence integration measures within the European Union) arenas have contributed to changes in the political discourse on defence industries within the European space. This article aims to explore how the national discourse on defence industries has become interrelated with a European discourse on the topic—a European discourse that mixes some of the old national arguments with particular aspects related to the constant evolution of the European Union towards an ever more coherent regional polity and international actorness. Also analysed is the extent to which this political move puts at risk the European Union's ambitions to promote a better world, based on an alternative understanding of international politics.     

Whose Whales? Developing countries and the right to use whales by non‐lethal means

Abstract

While the clash between whaling and anti‐whaling interests in international fora, especially the International Whaling Commission (IWC), has escalated over the last two decades, very little attention, if any, has been paid to the active participation of developing country representatives and agencies (both governmental and non‐governmental) in the issues surrounding whale conservation, research and sustainable use. The failure to recognize the interests of developing nations in non‐lethal use of whales, as well as their marginalization in the IWC decision‐making process, has contravened their sovereign rights and thwarted efforts to develop a solid consensus on many critical issues.