Gravitational lensing: a unique probe of dark matter and dark energy

I review the development of gravitational lensing as a powerful tool of the observational cosmologist. After the historic eclipse expedition organized by Arthur Eddington and Frank Dyson, the subject lay observationally dormant for 60 years. However, subsequent progress has been astonishingly rapid, especially in the past decade, so that gravitational lensing now holds the key to unravelling the two most profound mysteries of our Universe—the nature and distribution of dark matter, and the origin of the puzzling cosmic acceleration first identified in the late 1990s. In this non-specialist review, I focus on the unusual history and achievements of gravitational lensing and its future observational prospects

Who wants to talk to terrorists?

Interviewing terrorists or former terrorists has become an increasingly popular research method in terrorism studies. What terrorists say can shed light on motivations, decision-making processes and operational details that without first-hand testimony could only be inferred. In this chapter, a selection of these studies is reviewed alongside a consideration of global trends in terrorism and developments in terrorism research

Reactions:The new (para-) military urbanism

In this chapter I argue that the new wave of urban guerrillas needs to be countered by appropriate counter-measures by law enforcement, paramilitary and military forces who also have to move into cities in order to defend them. I start the chapter with a more detailed introduction into the art of Critical Infrastructure Protection (CIP), commenting on the difficulties of protecting our open societies against modern forms of terrorism or ‘urban guerrilla warfare’. Next, I critically discuss the two basic (ideal type) models on how to respond to the terrorist threat: the Criminal Justice Model (CJM) and the War Model (WM). Drawing on riots in a number of French banlieues (suburbs) and on the London 2011 riots, I also point out that terrorists are only the tip of the iceberg when it comes to the outbreak of latent conflicts in modern urban sprawls. I conclude this section with a first brief look at the question of how far liberal democracies can go in order to respond to the terrorist threat.</p