Adam Ferguson and the danger of books

Throughout his career Adam Ferguson made a series of conservative political pronouncements on contemporary events.This paper treats these pronouncements as having a solid basis in his social theory and examines his place in the conceptual development of the tradition of British conservatism.It examines Ferguson's distinction between two forms of human knowledge: book learning of abstract science acquired from formal education and capacity acquired from practical experience in real affairs. Ferguson's empiricism leads to a series of sustained warnings against the danger of excessive abstraction to the pursuit of science and these concerns are extended into the social and political realm as he cautions against reliance on abstract philosophy and defends the superiority of practical politicians

The death of Private Leonard Manning

New Zealand Army Private, Leonard Manning, was killed in an ambush in East Timor in July 2000. The circumstances of his killing and the military context in which it occurred, raised many questions at the time and many of these remain unresolved. This report brings together what was known, as of the middle of 2005, expanding on articles published by the author in the New Zealand International Review, in 2001 and 2005

Refusal of orders: The case of William Douglas Home

Based largely on the William Douglas Home court martial documents of 1944 and the three autobiographies that Douglas Home wrote, this article is an examination of the widely accepted principle that soldiers who are given orders that are ‘manifestly unlawful’ (Nuremberg) have an obligation to refuse them. The peculiarities of the case in terms of the personality and social status of the accused and its uniqueness (Douglas Home is the only prosecution from amongst some three million persons serving in the British forces in World War Two) raise significant questions about this obligation

Security in Oceania: In the 21st Century (Book Review)

Security in Oceania continues to be a pressing problem both for the Island states themselves and for the major countries that form its periphery. This review surveys the key issues that confront the parties, as seen by participants from the various states who met together at a conference in Honolulu in January 2001

The critical vulnerabilities of civilian nuclear operations

The exploitation for peaceful purposes of nuclear knowledge and nuclear technology is inevitably connected to the exploitation of the same phenomena for military purposes. Moreover, many of the key processes that are at the heart of the civilian nuclear industry (particularly, enrichment and reprocessing of spent fuel) are at the heart of a weapons production programme. If the problem is not to be disposed of by outlawing nuclear activities for any purpose, then the critical vulnerabilities of peaceful operations need to be identified and measures need to be adopted that offer the greatest assurance that such operations are not misused to produce weapons of any kind

Terrorism, protest and the law (in a maritime context)

Characterisations of terrorism in international conventions and domestic law sometimes seem to obscure the distinction between terrorism and certain kinds of protest activity, which may, in turn, be characterised as either licit or illicit. In this paper the issues are illustrated in the context of nuclear terrorism and in a maritime environment. Some observations on the concept of civil disobedience and some suggestions for a code of behaviour in the maritime context are also made

Depleted Uranium and Human Health

Persistent public anxiety about the use of depleted uranium munitions since the early 1990s has been underpinned by claims of serious health consequences for both veterans and exposed civilians, alike. Whatever grounds there may have seemed to be in the aftermath of the Gulf War have been thoroughly discredited by a series of reports from various independent and expert organisations, such as the World Health Organisation and the British Royal Society

Britain’s decision to withdraw from the Persian Gulf: a pattern not a puzzle

The reasons for the British decision to withdraw from the Gulf are highly contentious. While some scholars have focused on short-term considerations, especially the devaluation of sterling towards the end of 1967, in the British determination to quit the Gulf, others have concentrated on longer-term trends in British policy-making for the region. This article sides with the latter. Britain's Gulf role came under increasing scrutiny following the 1956 Suez crisis as part of an ongoing debate about the costs and benefits of Britain's Gulf presence. In this sense, British withdrawal fitted into a wider pattern of British decolonisation. By the 1960s, the Treasury, in particular, strongly questioned the necessity and cost-effectiveness of the maintenance of empire in the Gulf to safeguard British economic interests there. Recent interpretations which seek to disaggregate the British decision to leave Southeast Asia from the decision to depart from the Gulf are also questionable. By mid-1967, it had already been determined that Britain would leave both regions by the mid-1970s, the only difference being that this decision was formally announced with respect to Southeast Asia, but not with regard to the Gulf. The devaluation of sterling in November 1967, therefore, merely hastened and facilitated decisions which had already been taken. Despite the end of formal empire in the Gulf, Britain did seek, not always successfully, to preserve its interests into the 1970s and beyond