Letter from an Australian Anti-Nuclear Weapons Activist to Geraldine Ferraro

Letter from an anti-nuclear weapons activists to Geraldine Ferraro, detailing the supposed capabilities of nuclear weapons and tactics.https://ir.lawnet.fordham.edu/vice_presidential_campaign_correspondence_1984_international/1015/thumbnail.jp

License to Kill: An Analysis of the Legality of Fully Autonomous Drones in the Context of International Use of Force Law

We live in a world of constant technological change; and with this change, comes unknown effects and consequences. This is even truer with weapons and warfare. Indeed, as the means and methods of warfare rapidly modify and transform, the effects and consequences on the laws of war are unknown. This Article addresses one such development in weapon and warfare technology—Fully Autonomous Weapons or “Killer Robots”—and discusses the inevitable use of these weapons within the current international law framework. Recognizing the current, inadequate legal framework, this Article proposes a regulation policy to mitigate the risks associated with Fully Autonomous Weapons. But the debate should not end here; States and the U.N. must work together to adopt a legal framework that coincides with the advancement of technology. This Article starts that discussion

Defining the Debate on Controlling Biological Weapons

Looks at the 1972 Biological and Toxins Weapons Convention, and outlines the series of measures being negotiated by the world community to create a strong, effective, and enforceable biological weapons treaty

National Implementation Measures

YesArticle IV of the Biological and Toxin Weapons Convention sets out the obligation for States Parties to implement the BTWC through appropriate national measures. Although some States have enacted such legislation, others have not and the Aum Shinrikyo incident in Tokyo in March 1995 underlined the importance of appropriate penal legislation both to implement the BTWC (and the Chemical Weapons Convention) and to criminalise any development, production, stockpiling or acquisition of such weapons for terrorist or criminal purposes. This Briefing Paper reviews the development of the language relating to Article IV of the BTWC by the four Review Conferences, notes the requirements of the Chemical Weapons Convention and then addresses the opportunity provided by the Ad Hoc Group negotiations to strengthen the BTWC through stronger implementation measures

ELISION: sonic gastronomy

Concert review of Australian contemporary art music ensemble Elision. Their Spirit Weapons concert at the 2001 Queensland Biennial Festival of Music included Michael Smetanin, Vault; Michael Jarrell, Essaims-Cribles ; Liza Lim, Spirit Weapons; René Wohlhauser, Quantenströmung; Michael Vaughan, Infinite Skies

Legislative Alert: 2013 National Defense Authorization Bill

[Excerpt] On behalf of the AFL-CIO, I write in opposition to provisions changing nuclear weapons worker health and safety programs that are included in the Ltouse Armed Services Committee\u27s 2013 National Defense Authorization bill. These changes would seriously weaken worker safety & health protections at Department of Energy (DOE) nuclear weapons complexes

Strategic Concept for the Regulation of Arms Possession and Proliferation

In practice there is still a “piecemeal approach towards proliferation” and argued that a genuinely comprehensive and global approach to non-proliferation would involve the integration of policy “on nuclear and other WMD non- proliferation, arms control, and disarmament with strategy on conventional weapons to implement a holistic approach within a new Strategic Concept for the Regulation of Arms Possession and Proliferation. A major push is needed, not just to control the conventional weapons trade, but also to “reduce holdings of major weapons systems, ordnance stocks and production. There are longstanding legal commitment in the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty to “general disarmament” of all weapons apart from those needed for internal policing. In terms of timescale, one could look at getting the job done in the course of a decade. If we have timetables for global warming, and if we think that it is practical to get to grips with the entire climate of the planet, we should also see that it is practical to get to grips with weaponry

Ownership-dependent mating tactics of minor males of the beetle Librodor japonicus (Nitidulidae) with intra-sexual dimorphism of mandibles

Intra-sexual dimorphism is found in the weapons of many male beetles. Different behavioral tactics to access females between major and minor males, which adopt fighting and alternative tactics, respectively, are thought to maintain the male dimorphism. In these species major males have enlarged weapons that they use in fights with rival males. Minor males also have small weapons in some of these species, and it is unclear why these males possess weapons. We examined the hypothesis that minor males might adopt a fighting tactic when their status was relatively high in comparison with that of other males (e.g., ownership of a territory). We observed the behavioral tactics of major and minor males of the beetle Librodor japonicus, whose males have a dimorphism of their mandibles. Major males fought for resources, whereas minor males adopted two status-dependent tactics, fighting and sneaking, to access females, depending on their ownership of a sap site. We suggest that ownership status-dependent mating tactics in minor males may maintain the intra-sexual dimorphism in this beetle.</p

Dual-use Molecules from Yeast

This year the OPCW, the implementing body for the Chemical Weapons Convention, celebrates the 20th anniversary of entry into forces. In 2014, this organization examined the impact of new technologies in the field of chemical and biological weapons, in particular the “Convergence” of Chemistry and Biology. An OPCW report of the Scientific Advisory Group highlighted the importance of monitoring developments in science and technology: “New production processes, combined with developments in drug discovery and delivery, could be exploited in the development of new toxic chemicals that could be used as weapons.” 1 Indeed, since 2008, Synthetic Biology is monitored also by other international organizations, such as the Nonproliferation Export Control Regimes Australia Group