scholarly journals (A211) Nanosciences and CBRN Threats: Considerations about the Potential Risk of Illicit Use of Nanosystems

2011 ◽  
Vol 26 (S1) ◽  
pp. s58-s58 ◽  
Author(s):  
A. Rossodivita ◽  
M. Guidotti ◽  
M. Ranghieri
Keyword(s):  
Multidisciplinary Approach ◽  
Scientific Discovery ◽  
Weapons Of Mass Destruction ◽  
Mass Destruction ◽  
New Concepts ◽  
Conventional Weapons ◽  
Warfare Agents ◽  
History Of ◽  
Illicit Use ◽  
And Control

In the history of humankind, any new scientific discovery has shown the risk of a “dual use” for peaceful purposes or for warfare. In regard to non-conventional weapons, the recent exponential development of nanosciences and nanotechnology can provide efficient tools for counteracting these threats, by improving the detection, protection, and decontamination capabilities in the field of CBRN defence. Nevertheless, these disciplines also may offer novel, uncontrolled means of mass destruction, leading to the synthesis of new, intentionally toxic systems. Furthermore, several points of concern are linked to the new concepts of “nanotoxicology” and “nanopathology: If a multidisciplinary approach is needed to study nanosciences and nanotechnologies, a multidisciplinary approach also is needed to have a strict control on potential illegal uses of nanosystems. Experts active in various fields, such as academic, industrial, military, and health protection institutions, must work cooperatively to constantly follow the state of the art, note which kind of critical emerging technologies may lead to illicit uses, and control the diffusion of hazardous nanosystems that may be potential precursors of weapons of mass destruction, and cooperate with CBRN emergency prevention organizations in order to plan suitable countermeasures. This presentation will cover some examples of nanosystems applied to defense from non-conventional warfare agents and answer questions regarding potential misuses of basic nanoscience and nanotechnology findings.

Bits and Bytes vs. Bullets and Bombs

2011 ◽  
pp. 26-34
Author(s):  
John H. Nugent ◽  
Mahesh Raisinghani
Keyword(s):  
Weapons Of Mass Destruction ◽  
Mass Destruction ◽  
Major Threat ◽  
Or Groups ◽  
The Future ◽  
Conventional Weapons ◽  
History Of

This chapter examines briefly the history of warfare, and addresses the likelihood that in the future wars may well be fought, and won or lost not so much by traditional armies and/or throw weights; but rather based upon digital offenses and defenses that are not constrained by geographic limitations or necessarily having overwhelming national resources. This changing landscape may well alter how nations or groups heretofore not a major threat to world powers, soon may pose an even larger threat than that posed by conventional weapons, including weapons of mass destruction (WMD), or at least approach parity with the destructive power of such weapons.

The Social Space of Terror: Towards a Civil Interpretation of Total War

1987 ◽  
Vol 5 (4) ◽  
pp. 445-474 ◽  
Author(s):  
K Hewitt
Keyword(s):  
Social Space ◽  
Weapons Of Mass Destruction ◽  
Main Concern ◽  
Mass Destruction ◽  
Total War ◽  
The Social ◽  
History Of ◽  
Modern Warfare ◽  
Urban Places ◽  
Second World

In the paper I seek to interpret modern warfare from the perspective of civil society and its geography. I emphasize the predicament of civilians who are subject to direct and deliberate armed assaults. Particular attention is given to enforced uprooting or removals of population, and to annihilation of urban places with weapons of mass destruction. Two case histories are explored, both taken from the last months of the Second World War. They are, the expulsion of German civilians from Eastern Europe, and the firebombing of Japanese cities, especially Tokyo. Damages and casualties are detailed. However, the main concern is to establish the composition, plight, and responses of civilian populations, and this includes their relation to national war efforts. It is concluded that the vast majority, because of gender, age, health, occupation, and class, were essentially marginal to, and little involved in, the war efforts of their respective states. This contrasts sharply with the assumptions or rhetoric of the theory of ‘total war’, and the practice of targetting civilians and nonmilitary areas. It is suggested that the majority of home populations remain civilians in the fullest sense of the term, even in wartime. From this it follows that assaults upon them by military forces are primarily strategies of terror, and that the ‘social space’ attacked is essentially civilian. Such uprootings and mass destruction of human settlements have, however, become an ever larger part of the war strategies, and the history of warfare, of most powers since 1945.

Muse

2011 ◽  
Vol 11 (2) ◽  
pp. 48-50
Author(s):  
barbara koenen
Keyword(s):  
War On Terror ◽  
Pomegranate Juice ◽  
Weapons Of Mass Destruction ◽  
Mass Destruction ◽  
Religious Symbol ◽  
Fertile Crescent ◽  
The Us ◽  
Us Government ◽  
History Of ◽  
Ancient Times

Muse is a personal investigation into the historical and contemporary correlations between pomegranates and hand grenades by the author, an artist based in the Midwest. The essay begins with her reminiscences of witnessing a red-stained feast of the “exotic” pomegranate that was hosted by a friend of Armenian descent; then it chronicles the fruit’s historical associations as a fertility and religious symbol in many cultures since ancient times and its cultivation, beginning in the Fertile Crescent and extending across Asia and into Europe and North America. Upon her realization that hand grenades are named after pomegranates, the author describes physical comparisons between the bomb and the fruit, provides a brief history of grenades and grenadiers, and then muses on the contemporaneous marketing campaigns for the War on Terror that paved the way for the 2003 United States invasion into Iraq, and for POM Wonderful beverages that “defy death” as an “Antioxidant Superpower™.” As the hyperbolic claims of both marketing campaigns were later debunked—Saddam Hussein had no weapons of mass destruction and pomegranate juice does not cure cancer—the essay concludes by noting a recent, modest investment by the US government into the cultivation and exporting of pomegranates in Afghanistan as a hopeful sign.

ANTHONY H. CORDESMAN, Iraq and the War of Sanctions: Conventional Threats and Weapons of Mass Destruction (Westport, Conn.: Praeger, 1999). Pp. 717. ANTHONY H. CORDESMAN, Iran's Military Forces in Transition: Conventional Threats and Weapons of Mass Destruction (Westport, Conn.: Praeger, 1999). Pp. 432.

2000 ◽  
Vol 32 (4) ◽  
pp. 577-582 ◽  
Author(s):  
Judith S. Yaphe
Keyword(s):  
Comparative Analysis ◽  
Arms Control ◽  
Delivery Systems ◽  
Ballistic Missile ◽  
Weapons Of Mass Destruction ◽  
Chemical Weapons ◽  
Mass Destruction ◽  
Conventional Weapons ◽  
Policy Analysts ◽  
Weapons Systems

Tony Cordesman has become a veritable institution among Washington policy analysts. Few are more prolific, especially in the area of comparative analysis of weapons systems. He can be depended on to produce data-rich, comprehensive, lavishly documented studies of military doctrine and usage, intentions to acquire or produce weapons systems, and willingness to abide by international arms-control regimes. These two books are no exception. They include indepth analyses of conventional and non-conventional weapons systems. It is the latter that makes these books so important to analysts of regional weapons development and arms control. Cordesman examines Iraqi and Iranian acquisitions, from purchase, absorption, production, and use of conventional weapons to efforts to acquire nuclear, biological, and chemical weapons—the so-called weapons of mass destruction—and the requisite ballistic-missile–delivery systems.

scholarly journals THE MAIN CONCEPTS OF "RUS CULTURAL AND RELIGIOUS REVIVAL" OF THE LAST THIRD OF THE SEVENTEENTH – EARLY EIGHTEENTH CENTURY AS A PRECONDITION FOR "THE UNION TRIUMPHALISM" IN THE SCIENTIFIC WORKS OF ANDRZEJ GIL AND IGOR SKOCHILIAS

2021 ◽  
pp. 49-66
Author(s):  
Svitlana Bila
Keyword(s):  
Large Scale ◽  
Comparative Method ◽  
Direct Result ◽  
Religious Revival ◽  
Church Hierarchy ◽  
New Concepts ◽  
The Reformation ◽  
History Of ◽  
Historical Comparative ◽  
And Control

Summary. The purpose of the article is to analyze the contribution of Andrzej Gil and Ihor Skochylias to the study of the preconditions for the "triumph" of the union confession in the western dioceses of the Kyiv metropolis in the context of development of new concepts and ideas by these scientists. The research methodology is based on the use of historical-comparative method and methods of analysis, synthesis and generalization. The scientific novelty of the article lies in an attempt to study the innovative concepts of modern scholars on the topic of the history of the union church of the late XVII ‒ early XVIII centuries. Conclusions. The significant source material is the authors’ concept that at the turn of the XVII‒XVIII centuries there was a cultural and religious revival and large-scale modernization reforms in the Kyiv metropolis leading to the formation of an innovative religious model "Slavia Unita". The scholars state that the main initiators and promoters of the Reformation innovations were the uniate metropolitans of Kyiv, representatives of the Basilian order and the local church hierarchy. Implementation and control over the innovations were carried out during regular episcopal and archimandrite visits and episcopal courts. Everything was codified at local diocesan councils. According to historians, this religious model contributed to the formation of a clear union identity and a closer union with European religious culture. At the same time, it contributed to the preservation of the important principles of the Kyivan Christian tradition. There are at least two objective conclusions made by the authors. One of them is that a direct result of this model was "the union triumphalism" and the "golden age of union" in the Kyiv metropolis, and the second one is that the political consequence of "Slavia Unita" is unification around the union denomination of the Rus nation. The Union Church in the Kyiv metropolis became the most widespread confession and an effective representative of the interests of the Rus people.

scholarly journals Scientific and Technical Analysis of the Main Trends in Research during the Development of New Decontaminants and Decontaminating Equipment

2017 ◽  
Vol 1 (1) ◽  
pp. 42-52
Keyword(s):  
Current System ◽  
Armed Forces ◽  
Weapons Of Mass Destruction ◽  
Mass Destruction ◽  
Military Equipment ◽  
Large Size ◽  
Individual Protection ◽  
The Russian Federation ◽  
And Control ◽  
Military Units

The article is concerned with the current system of the decontaminants and decontamination equipment of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation. The authors indicate that the main decontamination work during the fighting with the use of weapons of mass destruction http://journal.ofhim.ru/index.php/vestnik/article/view/6/6must be done by the soldiers themselves with the application of the decontamination equipment at their disposal. This equipment should be repairable, simple and convenient in use, not expensive in production and have extended storage life. Military units of radiological, chemical and biological defence should be involved in the most difficult and responsible decontamination operations, connected with the decontamination of the command and control centers, large-size military equipment and individual protection equipment. The article is concerned with the main trends in the research, connected with the creation of new, more advanced individual means of decontamination, development of portable decontamination equipment, decontaminants and ways of decontamination

Future Considerations for the Medical Management of Nerve-Agent Intoxication

2003 ◽  
Vol 18 (3) ◽  
pp. 208-216 ◽  
Author(s):  
Pål Aas
Keyword(s):  
Chemical Warfare Agents ◽  
Nerve Agents ◽  
Nerve Agent ◽  
Chemical Warfare ◽  
Weapons Of Mass Destruction ◽  
Terrorist Attacks ◽  
International Conflicts ◽  
Mass Destruction ◽  
The World ◽  
Warfare Agents

AbstractThe use of chemical warfare agents against civilians and unprotected troops in international conflicts or by terrorists against civilians is considered to be a real threat, particularly following the terrorist attacks on 11 September 2001 against the World Trade Center in New York and against the Pentagon in Washington, DC. Over the past 10 years, terrorists have been planning to use or have used chemical warfare agents on several occasions around the world, and the attacks in 2001 illustrate their willingness to use any means of warfare to cause death and destruction among civilians. In spite of new international treaties with strong verification measures and with an aim to prohibit and prevent the use of weapons of mass destruction, nevertheless, some countries and terrorist groups have been able to develop, produce, and use such weapons, particularly nerve agents, in domestic terrorist attacks or during warfare in international conflicts. This article reviews current medical therapy for nerve-agent intoxication and discusses possible future improvement of medical therapies.Present medical counter-measures against nerve agents are not sufficiently effective particularly in protecting the brain. Therefore, new and more effective countermeasures must be developed to enable better medical treatment of civilians and military personnel following exposure to nerve agents. Therefore, it is important with an enhanced effort by all countries, to improve and increase research in medical countermeasures, in the development of protective equipment, and in carrying out regular training of medical and emergency personnel as well as of military nuclear, biological, or chemical (NBC) units. Only then will nations be able to reduce the risk from and prevent the use of such weapons of mass destruction (WMD).

scholarly journals Arms Supply and Proliferation Networks

2016 ◽  
Author(s):  
David Kinsella ◽  
Alexander H. Montgomery
Keyword(s):  
Network Analysis ◽  
Supply And Demand ◽  
Security Studies ◽  
Weapons Of Mass Destruction ◽  
Data Sets ◽  
Mass Destruction ◽  
Small Arms ◽  
Network Analyses ◽  
Network Layers ◽  
Conventional Weapons

Network analyses of global and regional arms flows (including small arms and light weapons, major conventional weapons, and weapons of mass destruction) and related international insecurity and criminality have so far been limited. Yet the literature contains hypotheses that could be explored or tested using network analysis. This chapter discusses supply and demand effects, structural tradeoffs between security and efficiency, pressures to become more or less centralized, and the effects of geography and other network layers. It concludes by reviewing existing data sets and analyses and gauges the potential for network analysis to inform the study of arms transfer networks. Given the general import of these networks for both security studies and policy, there should be a renaissance in the study of arms supply and proliferation networks.

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