INTERNATIONAL CRIMES AND OBLIGATIONS ERGA OMNES IN THE CONTEXT OF ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION UNDER INTERNATIONAL LAW

In the article an attempt has been made to analyze the peculiarities of the application of the categories of “international crimes” and “obligations erga omnes” in the context of environmental protection by the means of international law. The interrelation between these categories is investigated and their connection is demonstrated analyzing the work of the International Law Commission of the United Nations on the Draft Articles on the Responsibility of States for Internationally Wrongful Acts. The tendency towards the formation in international law of a new type of obligations erga omnes aimed at environmental protection is analyzed. It is emphasized that environmental protection can be carried out both in the context of enforcement of obligations erga omnes and international responsibility of states, and in the context of prosecuting individuals for committing international war crimes against the environment. It is worth noting that at the moment the mentioned protection is fragmented and does not cover all elements of the environment. For example, the provisions of the Rome Statute about war crimes against environment relate to international armed conflicts and protect the natural environment only. At the same time the harm to the environment in armed conflicts not of an international character can be equally widespread, long-term and severe. In this regard, special attention is paid to the concept of “environment” as an object of protection under international law. Its complex nature manifested through a significant number of components, including natural resources and artificial elements, as well as the interaction between them, is shown. Thus, it seems necessary to develop such an international legal regulation that could ensure environmental protection, which would cover all elements of the environment and take into account their peculiarities

Kosovo Specialist Chambers Jurisdiction and the International Criminal Court

The establishment of the Kosovo Specialist Chambers as a local war crimes court is coming as a challenge to the overall authority and jurisdiction claimed by the International Criminal Court. These two courts are at the same time divided and connected in so many aspects. Kosovo war crimes have been dealt in the past by icty, unmik, eulex courts and now a specially made ksc. The ksc as being a local court is still practically having above it the icty and the Mechanism which inherited the icty but also the possible application of the icc. We will compare the ksc to other courts having local jurisdiction in Kosovo with an aim to understand if the ksc is an exception or a rule from now on in certain post-conflict societies. The exclusion of the icc from adjudicating in Kosovo is a challenge and potential solution to other post-conflict societies, and they can apply its various forms and practices and overall ignore the icc in the future. Although icc is the only international criminal court it is not the only specialised court dealing with war crimes now. The ksc and icc overall struggle for jurisdiction have been also shadowed by the global political struggle for primacy, leaving these and many other local and international institutions without a real power, functioning in a framework of and for various political aims. The special characteristics and mandate ksc has makes it worth researching in order to better understand the icc and the overall understanding of International War Crimes courts/Tribunal worldwide today and in the future.

Towards radiotherapy for uterine cancer

The grave social disasters that have befallen our homeland in recent years first an international war, then a civil war, famine, epidemics have shielded us just as it happened abroad just as well as a true social scourge, which is uterine cancer.

INTERNATIONAL WAR: DECLINE, CONSEQUENCES, AND �PAX AMERICANA�

The establishment and maintenance of any existing �world order� is primarily based on a general aversion to international war and does not depend on the United States. This perspective disputes two explanations that rely heavily on American activities. One contends that the United States, aided perhaps by the attention- arresting fear of nuclear weapons, was necessary to provide worldwide security and thus to order the world. The other contends that the United States was instrumental, indeed vital, in constructing international institutions, conventions, and norms, in advancing economic development, and in expanding democracy, and that these processes have crucially helped to establish and maintain a degree of international peace. This article traces the rise of an aversion to international war and argues that this, not US efforts, should be seen as the primary causative or facilitating independent variable in the decline of international war. This perspective also suggests that world order can survive, or work around, challenges that might be thrown at it by the United States or anyone else, that fears that a rising China or an assertive Russia will upset the order are overdrawn, that there is scarcely any need for the maintenance of a large military force in being, and that, under the right conditions, international anarchy, could well be a desirable state.

Does Social Media Breed Misinformation and Conspiracies? Survey on Iraqi Undergraduate Students: The Case of COVID-19 (Preprint)

UNSTRUCTURED This paper aims to explore the general relationship between believing in conspiracy theories, and media preference to topics aiming to expand recent research suggesting that college students who have conspiratorial thinking tend to use social media to promote their conspiracy theories. This study surveyed a sample of 331 college students (230 male and 101 female) using the psychometric assessment of the Generic Conspiracist Beliefs Scale (GCBS), the most widely used measure of the general belief in conspiracy theories. The scale includes five related but distinct theory types: government malfeasance, extraterrestrial cover-ups, malevolent global conspiracies, personal well-being, and information control. This research demonstrated that most conspiracies that attract undergraduate students were ones that stated the reasons for the COVID-19 pandemic as a result of world conflict, as part of an international war, and as a result of the US-China trade war, and found that 58.44% of undergraduate students believe that COVID-19 is a global conspiracy. Among these, 35.67% said that this plot is part of a competition between China and the USA, 26.11% believe it is a biological war. Social media is an important part of these students’ information consumption: 71% prefer Facebook as the leading info resource on social media.

When peace nations go to war: Examining the narrative transformation of Sweden and Norway in Afghanistan

What happens to dominant narratives and settled self-images of so-called peace nations when experiencing actual combat in out-of-area military missions? This question arises when studying the contemporary international engagement of small states that previously have mostly been engaged in peacekeeping with limited mandates and non-use of force restrictions. As today's international missions have altered radically, it is important to analyse narrative friction and transformation in small states with little prior experience of international war-fighting. This article addresses this lacuna by examining two small states and self-proclaimed peace nations – Sweden and Norway – in relation to their engagement in the International Security Assistance Force (ISAF), the NATO-led security mission to Afghanistan 2002–14. By examining the interplay and discursive struggle of two narratives — peace nation and military culture – this article finds that these narratives constantly constitute and reconstitute a small state's self-image and the boundaries for acceptable or even required behaviour. With altered principles regarding use of force there is an increased friction between the narratives. By addressing these frictions, the article contributes to the literature on small state international military engagement and develops and refines assumptions regarding the drivers and consequences of small state participation in out-of-area missions.