(Non)-lethality and war: tear gas as a weapon of governmental intervention

This article attempts to think through the relationship between lethality and war through the object of tear gas from its invention to contemporary uses. First, I examine the way in which tear gas migrates from a zone of lethal/non-lethal conceptual indistinction, to one where the same rationalities operate but the intent of their use is opposed in relation to life and death. Second, from this biopolitical distinction, I trace its use in the governing of colonial populations and populations under occupation, and its recent weaponisation in “domestic” spaces. These contemporary uses of tear gas, I argue, can be seen as what Sloterdijk would call “atmosterror” which contribute to blurring the lines between war and peace.     

关于人民警察使用武器“判明”规定的思考

判明情况是法律对人民警察使用武器前作出的明确规定,但在实践中由于诸种原因,人民警察有忽视这一规定的情况。探讨判明情况的必要性、操作标准和剖析存在问题的原因,有助于逐步完善人民警察武器使用制度。     

潜血印迹显现方法研究进展

潜血印迹一般出现在恶性刑事案件当中,能够反映与案件有关的多方面信息,对于同一认定和分析判断案情具有十分重要的作用,这就使得其显现成为现场勘查的一项必不可少的工作。然而,这也正是公安实践工作当中的难点所在。经过多年的实验研究,目前国内外针对于潜血印迹的显现方法主要包括光学显现法和化学显现法。综述了这些常用显现方法的研究进展,并且讨论了每种显现方法在实践工作当中的优势和不足。     

致命性与非致命性武器在反恐怖行动中的综合运用

文章通过对国际国内反恐怖行动事例以及现代化武器装备发展趋势的分析,强调了武器装备在军事行动和非军事行动中的使用原则,着重探讨了在反恐怖行动中致命性与非致命性武器综合运用的意义和效能。     

Ceci n'est pas une…American nuclear weapon in Belgium

There is hardly anybody in Belgium who publicly defends the continued deployment of US tactical nuclear weapons on Belgian territory. The longer these weapons stay, the more the existing nuclear weapons policy and by extension North Atlantic Treaty Organization itself will be regarded as illegitimate. While one should not expect massive demonstrations similar to that at the beginning of the 1980s, the pressure to protest increases. By describing the different societal and political actors in Belgium and their respective views on the possible withdrawal of US tactical nuclear weapons, this article tries to explain the gap between policymakers and citizens on this issue. The main explanatory variables are a low-profile diplomatic culture and the lack of a strong link between the anti-nuclear movement and the political parties in power, resulting in the absence of political leaders at the governmental level, who clearly speak out in favor of withdrawal.     

The Palestinian intifada: An analysis of a popular uprising after seven months∗

This study challenges the conventional wisdom that the Internet is a reliable source of operational knowledge for terrorists, allowing them to train for terrorist attacks without access to real-world training camps and practical experience. The article distinguishes between abstract technical knowledge (what the Greeks called techne) and practical, experiential knowledge (mētis), investigating how each helps terrorists prepare for attacks. This distinction offers insight into how terrorists acquire the practical know-how they need to perform their activities as opposed to abstract know-what contained in bomb-making manuals. It also underscores the Internet's limitations as a source of operational knowledge for terrorists. While the Internet allows militants to share substantial techne, along with religious and ideological information, it is not particularly useful for disseminating the experiential and situational knowledge terrorists use to engage in acts of political violence. One likely reason why Al Qaeda and other Islamist terrorists have not made better use of the Internet's training potential to date is that its value as a source of operational knowledge of terrorism is limited.     

Triad of terror: post-START reductions in broader context

Abstract

This paper considers the present condition and future prospects for post-Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty (post-START) nuclear arms reductions in the following sequence. First, we review the essential features of the agreement between Obama and Russian President Dmitri Medvedev in July 2009, for a START follow-on agreement. Second, we discuss the larger political and military-strategic contexts within which these post-START negotiations will play out. Third, we perform an analysis to determine whether the START follow-on guidelines would meet prospective requirements for mutual deterrence and, in addition, whether US–Russian reductions could safely go even lower. Fourth, we take a specific look at the estimated impact of defenses on deterrence stability under post-START reductions. Fifth, pertinent conclusions are summarized.     

An Examination of the Reliability,Data Screening Procedures,and Extreme Response Patterns for the Youth Risk Behavior Surveillance Survey

Abstract

This article explores psychometric characteristics of the Youth Risk Behavior Surveillance Survey (YRBS), one of the most widely used instruments to assess the prevalence of violent and other high-risk behaviors in secondary school settings. Response patterns were analyzed for a subset of 414 youths who indicated that they had carried a weapon to school six or more times during the preceding 30 days, and were compared to a matched sample of youths randomly selected from the 13,610 participants in the 2001 national administration of the YRBS. Results indicated that extreme responders to the weapon-carrying item were considerably more likely than their counterparts to respond in an extreme fashion to all YRBS items, including risk items pertaining to school (e.g., physical fights on school property) and outside school (e.g., alcohol consumption) factors, as well as positive health behaviors (e.g., healthy eating habits). Overall, the results suggest an ex-treme response bias among some participants that may impact the validity of the YRBS instrument. More specifically, presence of this response bias may inflate estimates of the prevalence of school violence and related concerns. These findings are discussed in light of the need to carefully examine individual response patterns on future administrations of the YRBS in an effort to ensure maximum instrument utility.     

The Identification of Spiromesifen,a Recently Introduced Pesticide,Using Approaches to Chemical Unknown Analysis

An unknown, viscous, opaque, white liquid with a strong, unpleasant odor was submitted with a request for identification. It was analyzed using infrared (IR) spectroscopy, gas chromatography–mass spectrometry, and X‐ray fluorescence spectroscopy. It was found to contain glycerin as well as another compound. IR and mass spectral data were readily obtained for this second component, but it was not easily identified as common instrument libraries had no matching spectra. After an extensive literature search, the unknown compound was identified as spiromesifen, a recently introduced pesticide. The IR spectrum and electron impact mass spectrum of spiromesifen are presented here as these are not available in the published literature. This case report also provides useful approaches for searching for and identifying an unknown compound when it is not found in a laboratory's spectral libraries.     

Recovery and detection of urea nitrate in traces

Urea nitrate (uronium nitrate, UN) is a powerful improvised explosive, frequently used by terrorists in the Israeli arena. It was also used in the first World Trade Center bombing in New York in February 1993. It is difficult to identify UN in postexplosion debris, because in the presence of water it readily decomposes to its original components, urea and nitric acid. A method for the recovery and detection of urea nitrate in traces is described. The residues are extracted with hot acetone, and the extract chromatographed on chromosorb G-HP. The eluent is analyzed by liquid chromatography mass spectrometry using atmospheric pressure chemical ionization (APCI). By applying this technique, we were able to identify urea nitrate in actual exhibits. It was found that UN can be also formed during the analytical procedure, by certain combinations of urea, nitrate ions, and a source of protons and, hence, the presence of the characteristic adduct ion does not necessarily indicate an "authentic" urea nitrate. Several solutions are suggested to overcome this ambiguity.