War as the Continuation of Hegemony by Other Means: How Contemporary Wars Reach into Societies

Much thinking on war has been inspired by von Clausewitz’ famous dictum of “war being merely the continuation of policy by other means.” Such a politics/war dialectic conceives of war as being excluded from life within state and society; yet, contemporary warfare is in many ways constitutive for societies on and off the battlefield. Recent debates on war call for rethinking war in a more vernacular, critical sense. By joining this call, the article takes its cues from the theory of hegemony as developed by political theorist Ernesto Laclau in order to pave a theoretical avenue on how war reaches into society. Paraphrasing Clausewitz, I argue that war is the continuation of hegemony with other means, explaining how and why war has stabilizing and constraining effects on (democratic) political and societal life. Illustrating my argument with observations from the “Global War on Terror,” I am able to show how war is entangled with society having dire consequences for societal cohesion in Western societies.     

Assessment of STR Typing Success Rate in Soft Tissues from Putrefied Bodies Based on a Quantitative Grading System for Putrefaction

To date, there is no systematic investigation of the association of short tandem repeat (STR) typing success rate in soft tissues with different signs of putrefaction. Herein, putrefaction was rated using a newly developed 19‐parameter system in soft tissues from a collective of 68 decaying bodies, and DNA yield was determined in 408 samples. DNA integrity was rated using a self‐devised pentaplex PCR generating an “integrity score” (S_i). STR typing success rate was then assessed for selected cases. DNA yield and S_i differed significantly between tissues with kidney on average exhibiting the highest S_i values. Statistical analysis revealed that nine parameters were significantly and positively correlated with S_i. The observed values for each of these nine parameters were summed up to generate a putrefaction score (S_p) for each sample. Our results show that STR typing success rate can be predicted based on S_p before expensive multiplex STR profiling is performed.