The Alleged Use of Chemical Weapons Against the Syrian People: Does It Justify Forceful Intervention?

2017 ◽  
Vol 21 (2) ◽  
pp. 138-159
Author(s):  
S. Krishnan
Keyword(s):  
Crimes Against Humanity ◽  
American People ◽  
Chemical Weapons ◽  
Military Force ◽  
Us Military ◽  
Geneva Conventions ◽  
The Us ◽  
Us Government ◽  
The Usa ◽  
Military Campaign

The USA continues to deliberate over the use of military force against the Syrian regime under Bashar al-Assad, after its alleged use of chemical weapons against civilians. So long as the UN Security Council does not agree with intervention, any US action is not permissible under the UN Charter. Even the principle of Responsibility to Protect would not be justified in this case, as any action is likely to be short, punitive, and unlikely to end the attacks on Syrian civilians. To determine if international law permits the launching of US military strikes in Syria, it is the UN Charter, and not the Geneva Conventions, which must guide the US government and the American people. Then, there is the so-called humanitarian intervention, or a military campaign calculated to stop widespread attacks on a civilian population, including acts of genocide, other crimes against humanity, and war crimes.

scholarly journals The Perils of Perfectionism: American Reaction to the Dumbarton Oaks Proposals

2018 ◽  
Vol 54 (2) ◽  
pp. 284-302
Author(s):  
Andrew Johnstone
Keyword(s):  
League Of Nations ◽  
International Organization ◽  
American People ◽  
International Union ◽  
Roosevelt Administration ◽  
The Us ◽  
Us Government ◽  
The Usa ◽  
American Reaction ◽  
Political Spectrum

In the debate that followed the release of the Dumbarton Oaks proposals in 1944, the US government vigorously promoted the idea of international organization, partly due to fears of a resurgent isolationism. Yet as the debate progressed, it became clear that isolationism was not the main enemy, and concerns that the USA would not engage at all with the UN proved unfounded. Instead, the most active critics of the Dumbarton Oaks proposals were not those who wished to ignore the Dumbarton Oaks proposals, but those who wanted to perfect them. Calls for a more perfect international union came from across the political spectrum and for different reasons. Ultimately, the Roosevelt administration recognized that perfectionism was an issue that threatened the peace process. Fearing a repeat of the rejection of the League of Nations, the Roosevelt administration worked tirelessly to share the message of the Dumbarton Oaks proposals to the American people. But that message was mostly a cautious one, highlighting that while the proposed UN was not perfect, it was the best option for peace.

scholarly journals Power Struggle between China and the United States: Lessons of History

2020 ◽  
Vol 13 (1) ◽  
pp. 82-99
Author(s):  
L. Estachy
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
The United States ◽  
Industrial Complex ◽  
Wall Street ◽  
Us Military ◽  
The Us ◽  
Us Government ◽  
Recent Developments ◽  
The Usa ◽  
Financial Power

Fernand Braudel, the economic historian, gave a key for reading the power struggles occurring today between the United States and China. «Just as a country at the center of a world-economy can hardly be expected to give up its privileges at international level, how can one hope that the dominant groups who combine capital and state power, and who are assured of international support, will agree to play the game and hand over to someone else?» In other words, the ruling circles in the United States, the hegemonic power of today, want to keep their leadership, China, the rising and challenging power, would like to replace the USA as the hegemonic country: the trade war starting in 2018 should be analysed in this context . The paper will deal with the recent developments of this hegemonic struggle: within the American establishment, the Pentagon and the US Department of Commerce have regained control over «Wall Street» which has resulted in an updated version of the US military-industrial complex, with China replacing the USSR in a new "cold war". Complex strategies are developped on both sides, involving manufacturing, technology, trade, financial, diplomatic and military issues. Referring to this geo-economic key for reading, a number of actions taken by the US government since 2018 aims in particular at checking China’s mounting economic and financial power. For the United States, it is about challenging the development of China’s influence in the world, in particular along the new maritime Silk Roads.

The Political and Legal Force of the Prohibition of Force: Assessing State Behaviour

2008 ◽  
Vol 21 (4) ◽  
pp. 995-1003
Author(s):  
ALFRED VAN STADEN
Keyword(s):  
Effective Control ◽  
Military Force ◽  
The Us ◽  
Un Security Council ◽  
Us Government ◽  
State Behaviour ◽  
The Right ◽  
Military Campaign ◽  
The Military ◽  
Self Defence

Recent political developments on the global scene have shed new light on established rules concerning the employment of military force while giving rise, among other things, to a reappraisal of the scope and limits of the right of self-defence. The terrorist attacks of September 2001 raised the question of whether actions by non-state actors can fall within the concept of ‘armed attack’. Those attacks were defined by UN Security Council Resolution 1368, under Article 39 of Chapter VII of the UN Charter, as ‘a threat to international peace and security’, but the ambiguous formulation left sufficient scope for upholding the prevailing view that Article 51 may only be invoked in the case of conflict between states. According to this view, which meanwhile has been contested, any resort to self-defence for legally justifying unilateral military action against terrorist organizations operating in other countries needs to be supported by evidence or argumentation that attacks perpetrated by those organizations can be attributed to a state. In defending the military campaign conducted to oust the Taliban regime in Afghanistan, the US government could credibly argue that this regime, exercising effective control over the country, was to be held accountable since it was harbouring members of al Qaeda on its territory and was actively supporting them.

scholarly journals Limits and Possibilities of the United States Military in Post-Conflict Reconstruction and Stabilization

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Alcir Santos Neto
Keyword(s):  
Nation Building ◽  
The United States ◽  
Humanitarian Assistance ◽  
Inspector General ◽  
Post Conflict ◽  
Us Military ◽  
The Us ◽  
Us Government ◽  
Post War ◽  
Military Engagement

This study probes the limits and possibilities of US military efforts to facilitate the transition from warfighting to nation-building. Most comparative studies conceive the complexity of this transition along a spectrum from conflict to humanitarian assistance to post-conflict stabilization. While the last two stages have often been interpreted as a coordinated act of civil-military ‘nation-building’; the spectrum, in fact, represents an ideal type simplification. At one level, outcomes depend on the players involved, including: sovereign nations, national militaries, international and regional institutions, UN peacekeepers, private security contractors, and non-governmental humanitarian providers, among others. On the other hand, because the number, types, and causes of case outcomes are highly diverse and contingent upon many possible factors (among them for example: political, economic, military, organizational, humanitarian, cultural, and religious), institutions like the US military face serious difficulties both planning and coordinating post-conflict scenarios. Assuming this complex backdrop, the present study offers a qualitative analysis of two recent US government reports by the Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction (SIGAR) and the Special Inspector General for Iraq Reconstruction (SIGIR) on US military engagement in Afghanistan and Iraq. In both cases, the US government sought to ‘nation-build’ by facilitating post-war stabilization and humanitarian assistance, detailing its genuine efforts to record both processes. While results indicate some limited successes in both cases, they also indicate a familiar pattern of uneven performance failures consistent with other cases internationally. The analysis concludes with recommendations for further research that may better control the contingencies of post-conflict management.

The US battle against brand marketing: circa 1930-1980

2018 ◽  
Vol 10 (1) ◽  
pp. 60-85 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ross D. Petty
Keyword(s):  
Second World War ◽  
World War ◽  
Historical Sources ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Consumer Movement ◽  
Brand Marketing ◽  
The Us ◽  
Us Government ◽  
The Usa ◽  
Second World

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to examine the debate about brand marketing that occurred as part of the 1930s consumer movement and continued after the Second World War in academic and regulatory circles. Design/methodology/approach This paper presents an historical account of the anti-brand marketing movement using a qualitative approach. It examines both primary and secondary historical sources as well as legal statutes, regulatory agency actions, judicial cases and newspaper and trade journal stories. Findings In response to the rise of brand marketing in the latter 1800s and early 1900s, the USA experienced an anti-brand marketing movement that lasted half a century. The first stage was public as part of the consumer movement but was overshadowed by the product safety and truth-in-advertising concerns. The consumer movement stalled when the USA entered the Second World War, but brand marketing continued to raise questions during the war as the US government attempted to regulate the provisions of goods during the war. After the war, the public accepted brand marketing. Continuing anti-brand marketing criticism was largely confined to academic writings and regulatory activities. Ultimately, many of the stage-two challenges to brand marketing went nowhere, but a few led to regulations that continue today. Originality/value This paper is the first to recognize a two-stage anti-brand marketing movement in the USA from 1929 to 1980 that has left a small but significant modern-day regulatory legacy.

The USA: New Stage of Development

2014 ◽  
pp. 88-97
Author(s):  
N. Zagladin
Keyword(s):  
Tax Policy ◽  
Political System ◽  
The State ◽  
Military Force ◽  
Ruling Elite ◽  
Stage Of Development ◽  
The Us ◽  
The Usa ◽  
Democratic Parties ◽  
The U.S

In today’s world the U.S. ruling elite has proved unable to maintain its claim to world leadership by relying on military force. It was also necessary to make corrections in the budget and tax policy and to limit further increase of the state debt. The problems of choosing political alternatives, however, have provoked a serious conflict between the republican and the democratic parties, involving public movements. In fact, the US political system is in the state of crisis that exerts influence on Russian-American relations.

Taliban Advances

2021 ◽  
pp. 199-217
Author(s):  
Carter Malkasian
Keyword(s):  
Us Military ◽  
The Us ◽  
Military Campaign

Chapter Ten, “Taliban Advances,” covers the Taliban successes in 2008 in Helmand and Kandahar, as well as outcome of the US military campaign in the mountains of Kunar and Nuristan.

War in the East

2021 ◽  
pp. 177-198
Author(s):  
Carter Malkasian
Keyword(s):  
Us Military ◽  
The Us ◽  
Military Campaign

Chapter Nine, “War in the East,” delves into the US military campaign in the east from 2006 to 2008, focusing on the battles in the mountains of Kunar and Nuristan.

STATE IMMUNITY OUTSIDE THE STATE IMMUNITY ACT

2001 ◽  
Vol 60 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-58
Author(s):  
Xiaodong Yang
Keyword(s):  
Professional Competence ◽  
Education Programme ◽  
The State ◽  
State Immunity ◽  
Us Military ◽  
House Of Lords ◽  
The Us ◽  
Us Government ◽  
University Professor ◽  
The One

IS the State Immunity Act 1978 the sole basis for deciding on State immunity? It is and it is not. This seemingly self-contradictory reply is due to the fact that, on the one hand, any proceedings directly or indirectly against a foreign State must be brought under the 1978 Act while, on the other, certain provisions of that Act might paradoxically render the Act itself inapplicable and therefore entail recourse to rules outside the Act for settling the issue of State immunity. This is amply illustrated by the decision of the House of Lords in Holland v. Lampen-Wolfe [2000] 1 W.L.R. 1573, which involved a claim for defamation brought by a US university professor teaching international relations at a US military base in England as part of an education programme provided by her university under a commercial agreement with the US Government. The claim was brought against the education services officer at the base, who had written a memorandum listing serious complaints about the plaintiff’s performance and questioning her professional competence. The US Government claimed immunity on the defendant’s behalf.

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