scholarly journals Extinction in transition: coca, coal, and the production of enmity in Colombia's post-peace accords environment

2022 ◽  
Author(s):  
Hannah Meszaros Martin ◽  
Oscar Pedraza
Keyword(s):  
Coal Mining ◽  
Large Scale ◽  
Atlantic Coast ◽  
Peace Agreement ◽  
The Andes ◽  
Ecological Conservation ◽  
The Caribbean ◽  
The Government ◽  
Extractive Economies ◽  
The Military

At the Paris Climate Summit in 2015, then Colombian president Juan Manuel Santos proposed constructing a multi-national biodiversity corridor that would extend from the Andes to the Brazilian Atlantic coast. Santos highlighted increased militarization of the territory as one advantage of the corridor. In this model, ecological conservation becomes a matter of national/natural security, in the form of counterinsurgency to counter illegal economies. Climate change and ecological disaster mean the forest needs the military power of the State to save it from destruction. We argue that such conservation entails a form of necropolitics lying in wait; because to conserve one part is to condemn the other – framed as the enemy – to certain destruction, as land is simultaneously designated for large-scale development projects. Conservation, in effect, becomes tied to a form of extinction. Our article examines two increasingly militarized frontiers that work through conservation in Colombia. The first is where the Andes meets the Amazon rainforest, an area that has seen an increase in deforestation following the 2016 Peace Agreement with the FARC. Deforestation is often attributed to the cultivation of coca (used to produce cocaine), and the solution posited by the government is to eradicate the plant. We argue that eradication of illicit crops is a form of enforced extinction that militarizes the forest, targeting both human and non-human inhabitants. The second frontier concerns coal mining on the Caribbean coast, where mass environmental devastation induced by the industry has led to a forced reorganization of life in the region. The military guards the sites of extraction and those who oppose coal mining become targets for elimination. We bring these two cases – coal and coca – into dialogue, to trace the extinction-driven expansion of extractive economies, a process intertwined with armed conflict, narcotrafficking, and now with transitional politics.

License Limitation Regulations: The South African System

1973 ◽  
Vol 30 (12) ◽  
pp. 2077-2084 ◽  
Author(s):  
L. P. D. Gertenbach
Keyword(s):  
South African ◽  
Large Scale ◽  
Scientific Evidence ◽  
Atlantic Coast ◽  
Second World War ◽  
World War ◽  
Conservation Policies ◽  
The Government ◽  
New Industry ◽  
Second World

The exploitation of pelagic shoal resources off South Africa’s west (Atlantic) coast began during the second world war, with large-scale expansion beginning in 1947–49. At the end of the forties, the Government lacked the scientific evidence to formulate effective conservation policies, and pending the outcome of the research programs it deemed it advisable to put a brake on the expansion of these fisheries.An obvious measure was a ceiling on the annual catches. But this would not necessarily have prevented further influx into the fishing or the processing phases of the industry. As part of an economy-wide practice to require licenses for various kinds of operations, these were required for all fishing boats and factories. The Government decided in 1949 to refuse the issue of licenses for additional fish-processing factories and to limit the number and capacity to those already in operation or under construction.In 1953 the fishermen, aware of the limitation on the outlets (factory intakes) for their catches, and the continued influx of outsiders into the flourishing fishing side, willingly agreed to the freezing of the number and hold capacity of vessels fishing for pilchards and maasbankers. After the enactment by parliament of the necessary enabling laws, regulations were issued to establish a Pilchard/Maasbanker Boat Limitation Committee consisting of government, factory, and fishermen representatives to apply the controls over the number of boats, their hold capacity and the allocation of this fleet to the various factories.Adjustments, including some increases in the capacity of the fleet, were made from time to time to cope with changing conditions in the resource.A serious weakening in the control system occurred when fishing and processing licenses were granted to operators of fishmeal factory ships.The results of the limitation of entry into the fishing phase and the processing phases include several significant trends, among which are a smaller number of boats, larger-size boats with more powerful engines and equipment, and increased factory-ownership of boats. The factories introduced stickwater plants and other processes to increase the yield of meal from the available tonnage of raw fish.Although the industry has experienced difficult periods, it nevertheless seems, broadly viewed, that through the policy of restricting entry at the early stages of the new industry, it acquired sufficient resilience to cope not only with the ups but also the downs. It appears doubtful that "overcrowded" fishing and processing sectors would have had sufficient resilience to face fluctuating catches and fishmeal prices.

The Infrasound Network of Ukraine

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Oleksandr Liashchuk ◽  
Yevhenii Kariahin ◽  
Leonid Kolesnykov ◽  
Yurii Andrushchenko ◽  
Ivan Tolchonov ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Large Scale ◽  
Geophysical Monitoring ◽  
East European ◽  
National Space ◽  
Space Agency ◽  
Wide Range ◽  
Protocol Registration ◽  
Western Ukraine ◽  
The Government ◽  
The Military

<p>Geophysical monitoring observations in Ukraine are performed by the Main Center of Special Monitoring (MCSM), which is a part of the National Space Facilities Control and Test Center, State Space Agency of Ukraine. The MCSM ensures the implementation of the Ukrainian international obligations within the CTBT. It also provides prompt warning and response to emergencies, based on geophysical monitoring results, and runs continuous complex geophysical observations for scientific purposes. </p><p>Infrasound monitoring is one of the types of geophysical monitoring, performed by the MCSM. The infrasound network of Ukraine consists of three observatories, which include mini-arrays of microbarographs (3-4 microbarographs). Standard geometric configuration for an array is a triangle. The aperture of arrays ranges between 200 and 900 meters. There are also three separate observation points, with the only one microbarograph in each. The spacing between these points is hundreds of kilometers. The entire infrasound network is in North-Western Ukraine. One more Ukrainian observatory based in the Antarctic, the Vernadsky Research Base. All microbarographs equipped with wind-protection systems. Microbarographs from the Soviet K-304 acoustic station (0.03-10 Hz, 100 Pa) are currently used in combination with a 4-channel 24-bit digitizer. Besides, Ukraine has created new models of microbarographs with similar technical characteristics. The scheduled upgrade of the sensors is currently underway. There are also plans for installing infrasound arrays in the Eastern and Southern Ukraine. Furthermore, for assessing the possibility of recording large-scale processes in the atmosphere, the pilot plant of the microbarographs on the seismic array nodes PS45 is scheduled for this year. In this case, the distance between the elements of the infrasound array will be around 3-4 kilometers.</p><p>Previously mentioned infrasound arrays recorded a wide range of technogenic and natural phenomena, which could be of interest to the scientific community. Among the technogenic ones are explosions at the military arsenals, gas pipeline explosions, plane crashes, and an enormous number of mining blasts. Infrasound signals have also been caused by natural events such as earthquakes, tsunamis, avalanches, hurricanes, thunderstorms, meteorite explosions.</p><p>Infrasound data is transmitted to the NDC for processing and storing, using the SeedLink protocol. Registration of the events and events-bulletin is done by an operational on-duty team 24/7. The government authorities responsible for safety are notified immediately in case of emergency events. Data processing realized by using Geotool and WinPMCC, as well as the own software. It also used data from the foreign infrasound arrays for analysis. The Memorandum with the Central and East European Infrasound Network was signed in 2019. For optimizing the on-duty team's, geophysicists-analysts', and experts' work, processing of the infrasound data in the MCSM, as an experiment, has been transferred to the internal MCSM cloud platform. It facilitated access to the information, provided equal opportunities for the processing, and allowed involving experts from other institutions. </p><p>In the future, all of the above allows actively using the infrasound network of Ukraine for running global and regional monitoring and doing researches on the atmosphere and climate.</p>

Papua New Guinea: Volatile but Coupless

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
R.J. May
Keyword(s):  
Papua New Guinea ◽  
Prime Minister ◽  
New Guinea ◽  
Military Force ◽  
Peace Agreement ◽  
Internal Security ◽  
The Government ◽  
Security Operations ◽  
Civilian Authority ◽  
The Military

Before Papua New Guinea’s independence in 1975, its military consisted of a Pacific Island Regiment under the Australian Army’s Northern Command. In preparation for independence, there was considerable debate over whether the independent country should have a military force. Provision was made for the Papua New Guinea Defence Force (PNGDF) in the constitution, with a strong emphasis on the supremacy of the civilian authority. In the first decade of independence, the PNGDF was called out to assist police in internal security operations, but the priority of its role in internal security was not officially recognized until 1991. The deployment of the PNGDF to Bougainville to assist police in operations against what became the separatist Bougainville Revolutionary Army involved a heavy commitment of troops to a long-running conflict and was marked by a number of confrontations between the military and political leaders. This culminated in the Sandline affair, in which the PNGDF commander stepped in to terminate a contract between the government and the military consultants Sandline International and called on the prime minister to resign (but did not attempt to take over the government). After the Sandline affair and with the Bougainville Peace Agreement, relations between government and military improved, but several incidents involving PNGDF personnel led Prime Minister Morauta to speak of a “culture of instability” within the PNGDF and to invite a review by a Commonwealth Eminent Persons Group. Confrontations between the military and government, however, have consistently stopped short of attempted coup. The most plausible explanation for this may lie in the localized, competitive, and fractious nature of political power in Papua New Guinea, the absence of a dominant ethnic group, and the difficulties that even a legitimate, elected government has in maintaining law and order and service delivery across the country.

Russian State Policy for the Development of the Far East at the Beginning of the Twentieth Century

2021 ◽  
pp. 326-343
Author(s):  
I. N. Mamkina ◽  
N. Yu. Gusevskaya
Keyword(s):  
20Th Century ◽  
Development Strategy ◽  
Large Scale ◽  
Far East ◽  
Policy Position ◽  
The Far East ◽  
Russian State ◽  
External Threat ◽  
The Government ◽  
The Military

The proposals of the authorities on the development of the Far East at the beginning of the 20th century are considered. The relevance of studying the past experience in the development of this region is due to the increased attention of the authorities to the introduction of large-scale programs to strengthen the eastern borders of the state. The authors note the increased scientific interest in the study of the history of the Far East development at the beginning of the 20th century. An analysis of government actions in the Amur region during this period allowed the authors to determine their relationship with the foreign policy position of the empire in the Far East. It was determined that the formation of the Committee for the Settlement of the Far East was aimed at consolidating the actions of the central and provincial authorities. The authors note that at the stage of preliminary coordination of the directions of the Committee’s activities, the members of the government did not have a holistic idea of the regional development strategy. A comparative analysis revealed that the proposals of the central and regional authorities did not have any fundamental differences. The pragmatism of the proposals of local governors was noted. The authors come to the conclusion that the creation of the Committee for the Settlement of the Far East and the organization of the Amur expedition were undertaken under the influence of an external threat and aimed at strengthening the military-industrial potential of the region. The authors note that the administrative and economic development of the region was not a priority for the central authorities.

scholarly journals Political and military circumstances in Tuzla-Podrinje canton in the year of the Dayton peace

2021 ◽  
Vol 4 (6) ◽  
pp. 184-205
Author(s):  
Izet Hadžić ◽  
◽  
Ahmed Hadžić
Keyword(s):  
Bosnia And Herzegovina ◽  
Demographic Data ◽  
International Community ◽  
Food Prices ◽  
Peace Agreement ◽  
Complex Situation ◽  
Active Monitoring ◽  
The Republic ◽  
The Government ◽  
The Military

At the beginning of the paper we explain the territorial differences between the Washington and Dayton Peace Solutions, which especially refers to the Tuzla-Podrinje Canton and focuses only on the Tuzla region and its specifics in relation to other regions in Bosnia and Herzegovina. We then present the basic elements of the Washington Agreement, the meetings that preceded it, the content of the agreement, the principles of the Vienna Agreement important for the organization of the canton, as well as active monitoring and consideration of the agreement by the Tuzla District Assembly and its views on international community plans. We also monitor the implementation and importance of the implementation of the Washington Agreement in the Tuzla region and the creation of the Tuzla-Podrinje Canton, explain the name of the canton and use demographic data based on the 1991 census to indicate that Podrinje is a Bosniak-majority region. Then we give an overview of how the implementation of the Washington Agreement reflected on the normalization of food prices, the situation in the canton and the strengthening of the combat power of the Army of the Republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina, ie the II Corps of the Army of B&H. The paper describes the jurisdiction of the President of the Canton, the Government of the Canton, national representation by agreement of SDA and HDZ, the composition of the government, the reasons for non-participation of Serbs in implementation and talks with the Serb Civic Council to participate in organizing ministries. We especially present the activities of the President and the Government of the Canton on supporting the Army of the Republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina, II Corps and strengthening defense, budget funds for these purposes: action: „We are all B&H Army“, support for displaced persons and improving living conditions in protected areas of Srebrenica and Žepa We also describe the activities of the authorities during the fall of the protected zones of Srebrenica and Žepa, for the care of the displaced population, as well as the requests to the institutions of the international community to stop and prevent genocide against the Bosniaks of Srebrenica. We especially emphasize the activity of the Tuzla-Podrinje Canton Ministry of the Interior in preserving public order and peace. We are especially dealing with the military situation in the Tuzla-Podrinje Canton, presenting significant military successes through the liberation of Lisača on the Kalesija front, Vis near Gračanica, Vijenac near Lukavac, Greda on Majevica, as well as the crushing of enemy offensives „Spreča-95“ and others. In this paper, we argue the support of Russian diplomacy to the aggressor and link Russia's diplomatic activities through the contact group and other accomplices of the conspiracy group towards the state of Bosnia and Herzegovina. In a complex situation such as that in Bosnia and Herzegovina, when a Serbian aggressor with the support of insurgent Serbs in Bosnia and Herzegovina commits genocide, a joint criminal enterprise with the support of the Croatian state led by Tuđman and Croats mainly from Herzegovina win over Fikret Abdić to organize a quisling creation „autonomous region of Western Bosnia“ and opening a conflict with the Army of the Republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina. The support of the Tuzla District Assembly to the Presidency of Bosnia and Herzegovina and the Government of Bosnia and Herzegovina in their efforts to stop the war and find a peaceful solution was significant. Also, the authorities of the District of Tuzla vigorously condemned the divisions on the national principle as well as the division of the territory of the District of Tuzla. In this paper, we have processed the proposals of the Assembly of the District of Tuzla to the Presidency of Bosnia and Herzegovina according to individual peace solutions. The inadmissibility of the Dayton Peace Solution for the Tuzla-Podrinje Canton authorities and the SDA Cantonal Committee was specifically addressed as well as the reasons and request to President Alija Izetbegović and the negotiating team of Bosnia and Herzegovina to leave the Dayton negotiations, and then the request to Izetbegović to clarify the reasons for accepting such an unjust peace agreement.

scholarly journals From Impediment to Adaptation: Chinese Investments in Myanmar's New Regulatory Environment

2017 ◽  
Vol 36 (2) ◽  
pp. 71-100 ◽  
Author(s):  
SiuSue Mark ◽  
Youyi Zhang
Keyword(s):  
Large Scale ◽  
Social Activism ◽  
Regulatory Environment ◽  
The Political ◽  
Operating Environment ◽  
Foreign Investments ◽  
Public Pressure ◽  
The Government ◽  
The Military ◽  
Investment Behaviour

Myanmar's political transition of 2011 was followed by changes in the political and economic realms of society. The transition emboldened social activism, expressed as protests regarding the injustices suffered by people under the military regime. Many of these protests were related to large-scale extractive investments that had little regard for local communities and the environment. After the West lifted most of its sanctions, transnational capital actors who had been absent for the previous two decades returned to the country, many of them offering higher investment standards. In response to the “push” of public pressure and the “pull” of new investments, reformists in the Government of Myanmar (GoM) are now attempting to implement a stronger investment regulatory framework. The GoM's new demands on foreign investments to comply with higher investment standards are strengthened by Chinese state reformers’ own nascent efforts to curtail the excesses of that country's state-owned enterprises globally. As a result, prominent SOEs are being pressured to adapt to the new operating environment, resulting in observable changes in investment behaviour. We conclude that reform efforts are challenged by limitations on reformist state actors’ autonomy and capacity to regulate investments.

Cherkas number changes dynamics in the Voronezh Region in 1630–1680s

2019 ◽  
pp. 201-208
Author(s):  
Viktoria Brezgunova
Keyword(s):  
Large Scale ◽  
Social Economic ◽  
Population Based ◽  
Military Population ◽  
Voronezh Region ◽  
Frontier Region ◽  
Demographic Processes ◽  
The Government ◽  
The One ◽  
The Military

The relevance of this study is due to the recent increased interest in the political, social, economic and demographic processes that took place in the frontier region of South Russia in the 17th century, which included the Voronezh Region. Its territory was involved in large scale demo-graphic processes, there was a settlement and development of edge lands. In the late 1630s, the government placed cherkassys in the Voronezh Region, which later became a part of the military population. Based on the sources, we study the dynamics of changes in the number of cherkassy contingent of the region in the 1630–1680s, and reveal that their number during this period under-went significant changes. We consider the main factors that could make an influence on the cher-kassy number in the region, one of which, for example, could be the resettlement of cherkassy in neighboring regions. Also, the dynamics of changes in the cherkassy number in Voronezh Region in the 1630–1680s, presented in this study, on the one hand, systematize the data sources and literature that relate to this aspect; on the other hand, it can be further used by researchers to compare with other categories of service population of the region, as well as to study the demography in this period.

Suriname: The National Army in Politics

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Dirk Kruijt
Keyword(s):  
Trade Unions ◽  
Coast Guard ◽  
Military Government ◽  
Peace Agreement ◽  
Noncommissioned Officers ◽  
Ethnic Parties ◽  
Military Tribunal ◽  
General Elections ◽  
The Government ◽  
The Military

Suriname is a multiethnic society (from African, Asian, and European countries, and smaller contingents of the original indigenous peoples) formed in colonial times. After 1863, a small colonial army detachment with conscript Dutch soldiers was stationed in Suriname. The colony was provided autonomy in 1954, except for defense and foreign affairs. The same army detachment was now open for Surinamese noncommissioned officers (NCOs). Independence was obtained in 1975; the Dutch transferred all infrastructure of the colonial detachment. Suriname’s political culture was (and partially still is) based on ethnic belonging and clientelism. After independence, the government started spending big money and rumors of corruption arose. The NCOs, headed by Sergeant-Major Bouterse, staged a coup in 1980. They appointed a new civilian government but remained in control though a Military Council overseeing government. After two and a half years it generated a strong civilian opposition, supported by the students, the middle classes, and the trade unions. In December 1982, the military arrested the leaders and tortured and killed them. Between 1980 and 1987, Bouterse, now a colonel, was the de facto president as leader of the Military Council. The generally leftist but zig-zagging military government disrupted the economy. “Colombian entrepreneurs” assisted with financial support. Economic and political bankruptcy prompted the government to organize elections. The “old ethnic parties” won the election in 1987, but the army leadership remained in power. A second coup, in December 1991, was settled by general elections six months thereafter; the same ethnic parties returned to power. Armed opposition had emerged in the Maroon region. The Army, backed by paramilitary forces, organized a counterinsurgency campaign during several years of civil war. The civilian government brokered a preliminary peace agreement, but Army Chief Bouterse continued the war. Eventually the Organisation of American States mediated, resulting in a formal peace. Bouterse and his staff were discharged and became businessmen and politicians. Consecutive civilian government strongly curtailed military budgets, personnel, and equipment. Instead, they strengthened the police. In 2005, Bouterse participated in the elections with a pluriethnic political platform. His party became the largest one in parliament. He won the presidential elections in 2010 and was reelected in 2015. A Military Tribunal initiated a process against the actors of the December 1982 murders. In November 2019, the Tribunal convicted him of murder and sentenced him to 20 years in prison, without ordering his immediate arrest. The National Army, after decades of neglect, was reorganized. It is in fact an infantry battalion equipped with Brazilian armored vehicles. Brazil, Venezuela, and India supplied some assistance and training. The Coast Guard is part of the Army, as well as the Air Force which has a couple of Indian helicopters. Of the 137 countries ranked in military strength by Global Firepower (2019), Suriname is positioned at place 135. On the other hand, the country has no external enemies, although there exists a dormant frontier dispute with Guyana since the late 1960s.

Challenges in Including BCA in Planning Approval Processes: Coal Mine Projects in New South Wales, Australia

2015 ◽  
Vol 6 (2) ◽  
pp. 341-368 ◽  
Author(s):  
Robert Gillespie ◽  
Jeff Bennett
Keyword(s):  
Decision Making ◽  
Coal Mining ◽  
State Government ◽  
Large Scale ◽  
New South ◽  
New South Wales ◽  
Benefit Cost Analysis ◽  
South Wales ◽  
The Government ◽  
Benefit Cost

A requirement for project proponents to include a benefit-cost analysis (BCA) as a component of their environmental impact assessments is implied in planning approval legislation in New South Wales, Australia. Fulfilling that requirement in the context of three large-scale expansions of coal mines has led to the application of choice modeling to estimate values for the main environmental, social, and heritage impacts. A number of particular issues have emerged in those applications: the framing of choice sets so that incentive-compatible willingness-to-pay questions are asked; the inclusion of “existence values” associated with employment opportunities provided by mines; and the incorporation of environmental offsets as part of the choice task given to respondents. The benefit-cost analyses of the coal mining projects have proven controversial. While the government agency responsible for administering the project approval process has used them as an input to decision-making, in some cases its recommendations have been “over-ridden” by the imposition of subjectively determined administrative rules. In one case, an appeal through legal channels against an approval was successful in part because the judge who heard the appeal dismissed the BCA findings because it was contrary to his own viewpoint of the merits of the case. In response, the state government has introduced legislation that requires greater “weight” to be given to the development benefits of coal mining. These responses have left the role of BCA and nonmarket valuation in the decision-making process in “limbo,” with practitioners and policy makers unsure as to the future of the methods in politically charged contexts.

scholarly journals The military coup in Turkey on May 27, 1960: background, drivers and it consequences

2020 ◽  
Vol 9 (1) ◽  
pp. 205-209
Author(s):  
Malika Sharipovna Tovsultanova ◽  
Rustam Alkhazurovich Tovsultanov ◽  
Lilia Nadipovna Galimova
Keyword(s):  
Political Institutions ◽  
Democratic Party ◽  
Large Scale ◽  
Prime Minister ◽  
Military Coup ◽  
Charismatic Leader ◽  
National Unity ◽  
High Inflation ◽  
The Government ◽  
The Military

In the 1950s, the Democratic Party came to power in Turkey, relying on the provincial bourgeoisie and clericals. The charismatic leader of democrats Adnan Menderes became the prime-minister. The Democratic government pursued an active foreign and domestic policy. In particular, abandoning its traditional neutrality, Turkey joined NATO and CenTO military blocs. Concessions were made to religious circles. The government also carried out large-scale reforms, for which the society was not ready, due to which an economic crisis erupted in the country, the most characteristic manifestation of which was high inflation. By introducing repressive laws against dissidents, attempts to isolate the opposition, in particular the leaders of the Republican Peoples Party (RPP), the Democrats pushed the latter to search for allies in the army. In the ranks of the latter, under the influence of Western agents and the dissatisfaction of the officers themselves with the situation in the country, the idea of a military coup came about on May 27, 1960. As a result of the coup, the National Unity Committee came to power, consisting of representatives of the generals and leaders of the Republican Peoples Party. In 1961, a new constitution was adopted at a referendum, reforming the system of legislative power in the country, after which power again passed to civilian political institutions. The leader of the military who carried out the coup, General Jemal Grsel, became the prime minister, while the chairman of the Republican Peoples Party Ismet İnnbecame became the president of Turkey.

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