...INTRODUCTION The following research paper has been compiled to provide an insight into Chemical Weapons (CW). It deals with the description and the usage of various chemical reagents used by various countries and their negative effects. The following also shows the policies of countries towards chemical weapons, their stockpiles and their lethality and disposal. The following report also shows the history of chemical warfare, their demilitarisation, proliferation and the various councils set up to reduce their use. It also includes a news release by the sunshine project on the use of chemical weapons by the US military. All in all it tells you everything about chemical weapons and explosives. Chemical Warfare Chemical warfare (CW) involves using the toxic properties of chemical substances as weapons. This type of warfare is distinct from Nuclear warfare and Biological warfare, which together make up NBC, the military acronym for Nuclear, Biological, and Chemical (warfare or weapons). None of these fall under the term conventional weapons which are primarily effective due to their destructive potential. Chemical warfare does not depend upon explosive force to achieve an objective. Rather it depends upon the unique properties of the chemical agent weaponized. A lethal agent is designed to injure or incapacitate the enemy, or deny unhindered use of a particular area of terrain. Defoliants are used to quickly kill vegetation and deny its use for cover and concealment. It...
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...Sara Wadlow PS 434 Research Paper May 3, 2015 Introduction The Syrian Civil War has resulted in the deaths of hundreds of thousands of people. Since 2011, protests and attacks have been a daily occurrence, and the regime of Bashar Al-Assad has done what it believed was necessary to stop rebel forces and end protests. As such, Assad has committed many questionable, at best, and criminal, at worst, actions against the civilians of Syria in an effort to stop the rebels. The indiscriminate warfare Assad has used against Syrian citizens is shown in multiple international doctrines as illegal, and is thus a war crime, which should be prosecuted. The Statue of the International Criminal Court defines war crimes as “serious violations of the laws and customs applicable in international armed conflict” and “serious violations of the laws and customs applicable in an armed conflict not of an international character (ICRC 2016). Section IV of Rule 156 of the International Committee of the Red Cross, titled Other Serious Violations of International Humanitarian Law Committed During a Non-International Armed Conflict, lists use of prohibited weapons subject to criminal sanctions, and specifically references the Chemical Weapons Convention, Amended Protocol II to the Convention on Certain Conventional Weapons, and the Ottawa Convention as laying the groundwork for this guideline. This paper will address historical context of the Syrian Civil War, United Nations documents concerning...
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...plant, into their shared environment. It is a form of chemical warfare used by plants to defend their territory and resources, thus reducing interspecific competition1. Although some allelopathic plants produce agents that may benefit rather than harm surrounding species, the majority release chemicals that are toxic to others. To explore this biological phenomenon, the effects of allelopathic nuts of the family Juglandaceae, containing the novel allelopathic agent juglone, were tested on the germination of plants sensitive to allelopathy and those shown to be resistant. Based on previous studies examining allelopathy, it is expected that sensitive plants treated with this agent would cause negative affects on germination, while the seeds that are known to be resistant, would undergo relatively normal germination. The results of these experiments are generally consistent with this model of allelopathic toxicity and resistance. Allelopathy is a unique phenomenon in nature that is relatively new to the scientific community, and the results of this experiment are not only relevant to basic botanical research, but also have real world applications. Introduction Allelochemicals can be found in all parts of the plant, the greatest amounts are most often located in the roots and leaves. Plants release their allelochemicals in several different ways: volatilization, leaching, or exudation. In volatilization, the toxic chemicals are released in the form of a gas from the leaves and then...
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...first written in German by author Peter Sloterdijk. However, the English translation of the book was published by Semiotext(e) in 2009, which we now know of as Terror from the Air. Sloterdijk wrote this book based around terriosm and our atmosphere, he calls this Atmoterrorism. Peter Sloterdijk defined the 20th century as these three things “the practice of terrorism, the concept of product design, and environmental thinking” (reference p.9). And for him, there was one day in particular that marked the beginning of the 20th century; it was on April the 22nd of 1915. On that epoch, the unexpected happened at Ypres in Northern France during World War 1, when the army of Germany attacked using chlorine gas, making this the first act of gas warfare in history. It was this event in which modernity arose, no longer would attacking involve death to only the enemies, but now to their environment and the air they breathe. The evolution of using poisonous gas would cause harm and destruction to everything essential for living, it was also a sign that traditional war was no longer, but more so classed as terrorism. The first one of the three themes that outlines the 20th century is the practice of terrorism, which was when enemy interaction was established on a post- militaristic basis (Sloterdijk, 2009, p.29REFERENCE). During this time of war is when the discovery of the atmosphere and ecosystem transpired, this lead to human survival being compromised. Atmoterrorism is disreputable...
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...Research Paper The Evolution of Explosives SC 413, Hazards and Chemistry of Explosives to First Responders The destructive power of explosives has been felt and documented in history as very powerful, but the impact, development and change that it took during the 20th Century will echo in eternity. Many important events like the civil war, the movement of peoples from Europe, and the development of nuclear power led to the intense development of explosives by countries. Most were for the purpose of defense, others for industry, mining and development of technology. These explosive devices were mostly created by acts of war in pursuit of better defense weapons. The Civil war in the United States led to the development of many explosive devices. George and Gabriel Rains two Confederate soldiers had the ability to create explosive devices in the civil war. One such device was a black iron cast which resembled a lump of coal. Since it resembled a lump of coal Confederate soldiers would drop this object in a ships coal load. Once it was shoveled into the boiler the explosive device would react with the heat from the boiler causing an explosion. George and Gabriel Rains became known as the “Bomb Brothers” for their expertise in developing explosive devices and gun powder. Gabriel Rains developed what was to be the South’s first torpedo which could be used in land or water. The torpedo...
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...Instructions: You will submit a sentence outline of your research paper, following the example in this week's reading. The student example is attached here. Your outline must include your thesis statement, a description of the problem, alternative solutions, and the solution you are advocating. Be sure that the elements of the outline are complete sentences. Please note that, if you have one subheading in a category, you should have a second subheading. INTRO During the Northern Ireland conflict in the 1970’s the British Army coined the term Improvised Explosive Device (IED) after the Irish Republican Army (IRA) used improvised trigger devices with homemade explosives or plastic explosives for boob trap devices. The U.S. Military’s Joint Publication 3-15.1 (2012) defines the IED as “any device placed or fabricated in an improvised manner incorporating destructive, lethal, noxious, pyrotechnic or incendiary chemicals, designed to destroy, disfigure, distract or harass.” In the past and present conflicts of the Iraq and Afghanistan conflicts the U.S. military has been at the front of operations. The enemy that has been faced in these two conflicts knows they are unable to defeat our force with conventional tactics. This fact has lead enemy forces to try and mold the battle field into Asymmetric warfare using unconventional tactics. The IED has been the most effective weapon used by the enemy against the U.S. lead Coalition Forces in both theaters of combat. A running...
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...Prisoners of Henrietta Lacks, and the Value of Their Fate Inquiry Question: How does Rebecca Skloot’s depiction of prisoner experiments and research change the way we think about how early medical developments were first brought to life, and who really took the risks we should credit for them? Hypothesis/Working Thesis: Considering the reduced liabilities, rights, and public outreach of prisoners in the past, using prisoners as test rats was viewed as highly unethical and forceful by many. Skloot, Rebecca. The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks. New York: Crown Publishers, 2010. Print. In the Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks, Rebecca Skloot not only argues her point, but also does a great job at informing and teaching her readers the vast risks prisoners were susceptible to while being used by doctors as human guinea pigs. Skloot makes many references to different potentially deadly diseases that were injected into prisoners for further research. The public’s opinion on this happening was shocking; many thinking it was highly unethical and forceful of the doctors. Skloot makes claims about how prisoners were viewed as vulnerable inmates who were unable to give informed consent. Regardless of how the treatment was viewed, prisons and doctors did what they wanted to do in those days ranging from diseases, to chemical warfare agents, to deterring how X-raying testicles affected sperm count (Skloot 129). Throughout her study of how HeLa cells have expanded, and where they...
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...Nanotechnology Applications in Today’s World Santos Santiago ITT-Tech Author Notes This research was conducted using material from both the internet and reference articles from the following: Center for Responsible Nanotechnology http://www.crnano.org/whatis.htm Investigating Higher-Order Response Surface Methods For Military Nanotechnology Applications Like me, many of you have a variety of electric devices both in your home and in your car that as the years have gone by these devices have evolved from a big bulky device to what you now have, or can see. Technology has evolved at a drastic rate and this will continue in the future. Nanotechnology and the many applications associated with it will be a big factor on this evolution. The definition of Nanotechnology according to (The Center for Responsible Nanotechnology) Nanotechnology is the engineering of functional systems at the molecular scale. This covers both current work and concepts that are more advanced to the engineering of functional systems at the molecular scale. Because of the complexity of Nanotechnology and the science that guides it, much of the research in these areas is being conducted by grants to universities, Military research, and the Automotive Industry. There are many who protest this technology because there is still a lot to learn about its capabilities, and it uses. My research will focus on some of the uses of nanotechnology vs. the complexity of designing these devices. In the Automotive...
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...Crisis Management Plan Jessica Fullerton University of Phoenix Healthcare Communication HCS 350 Professor Ricki-Beth Horowitz Crisis Management Plan In this paper, I will describe a crisis management communication plan for a hospital, which I am familiar with as I work at a hospital. First there will be a discussion about how communication may be effected during a crisis or disaster. Then I will describe three ways to manage stress while in a situation like this. Lastly, I will walk through three ways to resolve potential challenges in communication, caused by tumultuous situations as described. Crises can be defined as: a natural disaster, such as earthquakes or hurricanes; an attack, any sort of improvised device causing casualties; or even chemical warfare. There are many variations of crises defined in, The Essentials of Public Health Preparedness (Katz, 2013). In a hospital during a crisis, we are expecting to see an influx in patients, sometimes overwhelming amounts, during times of crisis it is important to maintain effective communication. Hospitals are in constant communication with regional medical authorities; these systems help alert a broader network to the needs of the community at large. On a smaller scale the Hospital Emergency departments are in communication over radio with local police and fire departments, this communication is critical for the hospital to function properly. Allowing the hospital to know when critical patients are entering the...
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...TRENDS AND FUTURE DEVELOPMENT INTRODUCTION The fundamental problem of managing military research and development is that uncertainty about the enemy and the costs and benefits on new technologies make it impossible to identify the single best route to innovation. Stephen P Rosen 1. Stephen Rosen’s statement identifies one of the most challenging problems facing political and military leaders today. In an era of uncertainty, which includes a diversity of potential threats and military operations, what is the “best route” in the area of military innovation to translate limited research and development resources into capabilities to deal with current or potential threats and its allies? By the time World War I ended military theorists around the world had learned from several rude surprises. First of all, horse-drawn and foot transport really wasn't good enough in the modern world. They didn't exactly get rid of the horse but horses were extremely vulnerable to fire, and the mud characteristic of trench warfare slowed them down a bit. Men were better in mud, but not much, and could not march quickly enough. The imperatives of battle were such that soldiers had to be able to move in almost all conditions, and if breakthroughs were to be exploited, they had to move fast. 2. The realities of trench warfare came as a rude shock to officers in World War I. Machine guns, barbed wire and trenches gave overwhelming...
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...IRAQ-KUWAIT War Negotiation Style and Frameworks by Steven Roberts A case study that shows how important it is to consider whether or not to accept concessions (nhượng bộ đất đai) by taking a reasonable perspective and framework. | Bottom of Form On a scorching (nắng cháy) summer day in August, 1990, the citizens of Kuwait stared in puzzlement (tình trạng rối bời) at the encroaching (xâm phạm), dusty streams of what appeared to be a pending desert sandstorm, creeping ominously (đáng ngại) towards them from across the forbidding dessert. To their dismay (mất tinh thần) and horror filled eyes, the quaking (kinh hãi) citizenry (toàn thể công dân) had become helpless witnesses to the advancing units of Saddam Hussein’s Iraqi army, relentlessly engaged in the illegal invasion of their homeland. There had been no warning of this pending disaster. Kuwaiti resistance was swept aside much like one casually brushes away a crumb from one’s lapel. (sự kháng cự của Kuwait đã bị đánh bật như phủi sạch hạt bụi trên ve áo) After six days, Hussein declared that he had annexed (thôn tính) Kuwait. The world was stunned (sưungr sốt) by Hussein’s audacity(trơ trẽn táo bạo), and the Middle East became very anxious about what the future may hold for this unsettled region. By August 30, the Arab League, called by President Mubarak of Egypt, attempted to defuse (xoa dịu) this potentially explosive crisis through deft negotiation. (khôn khéo) The Arab League proposed to Hussein that if he would...
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...United We Stand; Divided We Fall Why Appropriate U.S. Intervention in Foreign Policy is a Necessity for Global Peace In recent times it has become clear that trust of the United States’ ability to foster and produce peace is at an all-time low. In fact, it has recently been reported by The New York Post that a Gallup poll which analyzed data collected from 66,000 people polled in 65 countries that the U.S. is considered to be more threatening to peace efforts than Pakistan, Iran, and China combined, “Of the 66,000 people polled, just under a quarter named Uncle Sam as the greatest threat to world peace,” (New York Post, 2014). While this data sheds a frightening light upon the global opinion of the U.S.’s ability to act as successful peacekeepers, and due to many of the blunders experienced during Bush’s presidency, it is understandable as to why faith in the U.S. has diminished. However, both recent and historical data points towards the contrary, and instead has shown the importance of U.S. intervention in maintaining peace and showing the world that violations of human rights will not be tolerated. Therefore appropriate U.S. intervention within certain foreign policies is a necessity for global peace. Due to the U.S. maintaining one of the world’s largest militia in non-war times it is imperative that the United States’ military be involved in global efforts to foster and maintain peace when necessary. Many countries do not have the capability to defend themselves...
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...Timor’s much-deserved independence from Indonesia was a multidimensional achievement, with a wide range of economic and political implications. Internal resistance was certainly not the sole contributing factor – there was great interplay between numerous forces, such as the actions of Indonesian armed forces and paramilitary affiliates, Jakarta’s evolving political environment, and pressures from governments abroad, which led to the nation’s independence. However, internal resistance as a part of the independence struggle was particularly unique in East Timor as it manifested in two forms – violent resistance and non-violent resistance – each creating impacts of varying magnitudes. I chose the role of internal resistance as the focus of my research due to the intriguing nature of this very distinction. This essay will attempt to demonstrate that internal resistance of both forms worked to strengthen nationalism and unity among the East Timorese, and garnered crucial international support that was necessary for East Timor’s independence. Historically, a nation’s first response to an invasion is armed resistance, whether it is sanctioned by the government, or carried out by guerilla forces. Such was also the case in East Timor, where The Revolutionary Front for an Independent East Timor (Fretilin) became the face of East Timorese armed resistance upon Indonesia’s invasion in December 1975. Following the invasion, Fretilin successfully established a “functioning society” in the mountains...
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...Natural Resources and Energy Paper People, Science, and the Environment SCI 256 “Earth provides enough to satisfy every man’s need, but not every man’s greed.” (Gandhi, 2011) Did Gandhi have foresight into the destructive ways of humans? Earth seemed to have endless amenities that would take humans a lifetime to consume. With the abundance of these amenities, have humans failed to conserve and nurture nature’s gifts in the name of greed? In this paper, the subject to identify and discuss will be the effects that a growing human population may have on the marine ecosystem’s resources, including loss or harm to population of wild species; discuss one management practice of sustainability and conservation of natural resources in the marine ecosystem. Finally, the paper will identify is the risks and benefits of extracting or using one type of nonrenewable and one type of renewable energy resource from the marine ecosystem. From a distance in space humans look at this planet called Earth. Earth covers the massive blue oceans of life. Planet Earth humans call home consist of numerous types of land and marine species from the deepest part of the ocean to the clear shallow water of sandy beaches that lie within an ecosystem. The marine ecosystem is so complex but at the same time it is not complicated. Humans cannot see creatures with the naked eye but can spot a massive blue whale from a distance;...
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...The Stuxnet Computer Worm: Harbinger of an Emerging Warfare Capability Paul K. Kerr Analyst in Nonproliferation John Rollins Specialist in Terrorism and National Security Catherine A. Theohary Analyst in National Security Policy and Information Operations December 9, 2010 Congressional Research Service 7-5700 www.crs.gov R41524 CRS Report for Congress Prepared for Members and Committees of Congress The Stuxnet Computer Worm: Harbinger of an Emerging Warfare Capability Summary In September 2010, media reports emerged about a new form of cyber attack that appeared to target Iran, although the actual target, if any, is unknown. Through the use of thumb drives in computers that were not connected to the Internet, a malicious software program known as Stuxnet infected computer systems that were used to control the functioning of a nuclear power plant. Once inside the system, Stuxnet had the ability to degrade or destroy the software on which it operated. Although early reports focused on the impact on facilities in Iran, researchers discovered that the program had spread throughout multiple countries worldwide. From the perspective of many national security and technology observers, the emergence of the Stuxnet worm is the type of risk that threatens to cause harm to many activities deemed critical to the basic functioning of modern society. The Stuxnet worm covertly attempts to identify and exploit equipment that controls a nation’s critical infrastructure. A successful...
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