Search: {search_term_string}
26 Oct Narrating Identities across the Aegean: From Lausanne to Netflix
...of multiple factors. It was directed, instigated, and tolerated by state authorities. It was framed as an act of ‘retaliation’, a forcible answer to Greece’s support and fomentation of the Greek Cypriot struggle against Great Britain. Hundreds of ordinary people, especially young unemployed men from rural Turkey floating Istanbul in search of a better future, were the direct perpetrators, whereas parastatal organizations and secret services also played their part in instigating and organizing the persecutory attack, e.g. by spreading fake news regarding a Greek attack against Mustafa Kemal’s childhood house...
10 May New Technologies Symposium: Technology, Synergy, and Regulation
...pulling together insights across a range of domains, including nanotech, space operations, human enhancement, and autonomous weapons systems, Boothby and his contributing authors elucidate not just multiple technologies but also how these technologies affect each other and the implications in our search for effective regulation regarding their military application. With a nod to my Woomera Manual colleagues Melissa de Zwart, Rob McLaughlin, and Cassandra Steer, who are also participating in this discussion (and de Zwart and McLaughlin also contributed chapters to New Technologies), I would like to consider space technology...
08 May New Technologies Symposium: Autonomous Weapons Systems– Why Keeping a ‘Human On the Loop’ Is Not Enough
...human degradation technologies), nanomaterials, and biometrics, among others, featuring fantastic scholars. It also provides a useful introductory section outlining the legal frameworks that regulate these new technologies, both inside and outside armed conflict. Needless to say, this book embarks in a phenomenally ambitious enterprise, which the authors largely honour. The book is informative, tightly argued, and highly topical. It is a wonderful resource for researchers and advanced students. Most likely, it should be required reading in any IHL course in the world. I am grateful to the editors of Opinio...05 May Guest Post: The Mediterranean Migrants Crisis and the Use of Force–Is There a Case for Destroying Smugglers’ Boats?
[Sondre Torp Helmersen is a PhD Candidate at the University of Oslo and Niccolò Ridi is a PhD Candidate at King’s College London and SNSF Research Assistant, The Graduate Institute, Geneva.] 1. Introduction The recent disasters off the coasts of Italy have been the deadliest documented incidents in the troubled history of migration in the Mediterranean sea. The unprecedented number of lives lost at sea has prompted outrage in a number of countries and brought the Mediterranean migrants Crisis at the top of the European political agenda. After more than...27 May The Real Story Behind the Conviction of the Pakistani Doctor
I’ve been meaning to blog about the 33-year sentence that Pakistan recently imposed on Shakil Afridi, the doctor who secretly worked with the CIA to locate bin Laden. The United States is predictably up in arms over the sentence, with Leon Panetta recently claiming that “[i]t is so difficult to understand and it’s so disturbing that they would sentence this doctor to 33 years for helping in the search for the most notorious terrorist in our times… This doctor was not working against Pakistan, he was working against al Qaeda.”...25 Jul What Will the Medal Count Be for “None of the Above”: Olympics Allows Non-National Competitors
...time for “Independent Olympians” – more than 50 competed in Barcelona in 1992, most apparently from the former Yugoslavia in the absence of successor National Olympic Committees there, and others have haled from Kuwait, East Timor, and the Netherlands Antilles. I suppose the Marial case fits comfortably in those precedents, though a quick search of the Olympic Charter itself doesn’t cough up an obvious formal basis for the category. If nothing else, Marial proves the obvious point that for non-team competitions, national affiliation is not an inherently necessary organizing principle....
09 Dec Symposium on Forensic and Counter-Forensic Approaches to International Law: The Production of Visible Evidence in the Gaza Genocide
...neo-liberal structures and did not necessarily lead to just or accountable political formations. Such democratic and egalitarian notions are not only technologically and politically determined but cater to specific categories of labor and expertise. The freelance journalist, freelance researcher and the outsourced expert are all casted by evidence-based media as free agents in a free media market. As much as the independence of those from traditional media institutions and its ideological ties is important, aspects such as job security, professional and ethical standards, or privatization of knowledge intervene in the...