Fighting for Women, Life, Freedom Across Borders: A Content Analysis of Internet Activism Displayed in TikTok Videos and Public Protests Concerning the Iranian Protests

This study examined internet activism displayed in TikTok videos and the sharing forms of public protest using TikTok videos regarding the 2022 Iranian protests. A content analysis of the 50 most liked videos using the advanced search “Iran protest 2022” identified eight general themes, including educational awareness, public marches/gatherings, cutting hair, miscellaneous, sports demonstrations, hacking Iranian media/ technologies, purposeful modesty law violations, and burning hijabs. The most prevalent theme of the eight was educational awareness, accounting for 50% of the total videos used in the sample. All videos included in the sample supported the protests and the symbolism provided, and no videos were found to be pro-Islamic regime

Ice

With an average surface temperature of 15°C (and rising), much of our planet is inhospitable to ice. Today, less than 2% of Earth’s water exists in a frozen form, locked up in glaciers and ice sheets, sea ice and permafrost. This ‘cryosphere’ is critically important for controlling global sea level and the distribution of the planet’s fresh water, yet it has always existed in a rather perilous state. In contrast, the ice caps on Mars and the frozen surface of Jupiter’s moon, Europa, enjoy a much colder and more stable existence. To understand the impacts of climate change on Earth’s cryosphere, it is necessary to examine the different components of our icy world separately, for each has its own sensitivity to local and global forces

Determining the effect of temperature on species interactions in microcosms: a QPCR approach

A thesis submitted to the Institute of Biomedical, Environmental Science and Technology, University of Bedfordshire, in fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Masters by Research.Predicting the impact of environmental change is a major goal and challenge in ecology. With climate change threatening the biodiversity and ecosystem functioning of our natural ecosystems, understanding the effects of such change and how these are mediated through a community is of critical importance. Community stability could be severely affected by temperature through extinctions, alterations in species dominance and species-specific responses. One approach to testing the consequences of climate change on a community is to manipulate experimental aquatic microcosms. However, investigating community-level responses to change in experimental microcosms has been limited by the ability to accurately monitor the basal trophic level of bacteria. Here I develop a molecular approach to monitoring bacteria by using qPCR. The qPCR approach was successful for three bacterial species and produced sensitivity to the single cell. The qPCR approach was implemented in an experimental setting to aid the investigation of the relationships between temperature, species interactions and community properties. Direct temperature response was species-specific, but indirect interactions strongly mediated temperature through the community, altering competitor and predator response. Therefore, predicting species and community response to environmental change is dependent on knowledge of specific-species response, indirect pathways of interaction and the effects of community composition

Cosmopolitanism, Custom, and Complexity: Kant`s Cosmopolitan Norms in Action

Immanuel Kant's Cosmopolitanism has come to stand alongside Political Realism and Liberal Internationalism as one of three broad theories of ethics in international relations. Yet Cosmopolitanism has been subjected to criticisms that the universal norms identified by Kant - including such norms as hospitality, reciprocity, and publicity (transparency and free political participation) - are Western and Eurocentric in nature, incompatible with cultural pluralism, and lack the justification and legitimacy for the broad-based consensus required for a Cosmopolitan political sphere to emerge among the world’s diverse peoples. This paper seeks to address these criticisms of Cosmopolitanism by studying examples of Cosmopolitan norms in action. These examples have been drawn from diverse regions around the globe to represent self-organized, 'self-legislating', civil societies that have themselves developed the rules that guide their behaviour and the terms of their discourse in the absence of a centralized governing authority. It is hoped that this approach will contribute to this ongoing debate by demonstrating that Cosmopolitan norms can be found in a diverse array of human communities and cultures, that Cosmopolitan norms are not only compatible with pluralism, but are instrumental in its success and vitality, and, finally, that the flourishing of such civil societies shows that the adoption of Cosmopolitan norms are strongly correlated with successful outcomes and well-being

The Rules of Engagement: Self-Defense and the Principle of Distinction in International Humanitarian Law

This dissertation examines the problem of the mistaken killing of civilians in armed conflict. This occurs when a civilian is intentionally killed by armed forces because he or she is mistakenly believed to pose a threat of harm. The requirement that armed forces distinguish between combatants and civilians who are immune from being attacked is known as the principle of distinction in the international humanitarian law. The problem posed by distinguishing irregular fighters from ordinary civilians has long been recognized in the law, and the modern laws of war were developed, in part, to respond to this problem. At present, two of the more influential approaches to resolving the problem of distinction are the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) Interpretive Guidance on Civilian Direct Participation in Hostilities, which sets out the ICRCs opinion on the circumstances under which civilian participants may be targeted, and modern Rules of Engagement, which regulate the use of force by soldiers and security forces during combat operations. This dissertation argues that both methods are inadequate to resolving the problem of distinction, because they are overbroad, in that they authorize the killing of civilians who have done nothing to forfeit their immunity, and therefore violate this key requirement of the international laws of war. This dissertation proposes a definition of civilian direct participation in hostilities that is based upon ordinary rules governing self-defense. In this way, a civilian will forfeit his or her life only when there is clear and convincing evidence that he or she is engaged in an act of aggression that wrongfully poses an imminent threat of death or serious bodily harm to civilians or members of armed forces, and the use of force is necessary and proportionate to prevent that harm. Force will be necessary and proportionate only after de-escalation of force procedures have been diligently applied, and the consequences of the use of force on the surrounding population would not be indiscriminate or disproportionate, or be such as to spread terror. Merging the rules for defensive force with the laws of armed conflict possesses several advantages over the present practice of treating self-defensive killings as being separate from, and largely superseding, international law and its norms protecting civilians. First, this approach solves the problem of providing a principled definition of civilian direct participation in hostilities, which has long been the subject of controversy and contention among states and international organizations. Second, this approach provides an explanation for why pre-emptive and status-based interpretations of civilian direct participation result in unjustified killings. Hopefully, this will be a first step in quelling the growing practice of targeting persons based upon group affiliations, both real and perceived, that is gaining legitimacy. At the same time, this approach also addresses the growing problem of mistaken killings during escalation of force incidents. At present, the international laws of armed conflict do not obligate states to use minimal force when dealing with civilians and suspected civilian participants. However, if civilian direct participation were to be based upon rules for defensive force, then minimal force and escalation of force procedures would become mandatory, rather than merely recommended, as they ensure that the killing is necessary a fundamental component of justified defensive force. Furthermore, this provides an analytical framework that can be used to analyze novel or controversial cases of civilian participation, rather than allowing states to make these decisions on an ad hoc, and largely discretionary, basis

Cosmopolitanism, Custom and Complexity: Kant\u27s Cosmopolitan Norms in Action

Immanuel Kant\u27s Cosmopolitanism has come to stand alongside Political Realism and Liberal Internationalism as one of three broad theories of ethics in international relations. Yet Cosmopolitanism has been subjected to criticisms that the universal norms identified by Kant - including such norms as hospitality, reciprocity, and publicity (transparency and free political participation) - are Western and Eurocentric in nature, incompatible with cultural pluralism, and lack the justification and legitimacy for the broad-based consensus required for a Cosmopolitan politicalsphere to emerge among the world’s diverse peoples. This paper seeks to address these criticisms of Cosmopolitanism by studying examples of Cosmopolitan norms in action. These examples have been drawn from diverse regions around the globe to represent self-organized, \u27self-legislating\u27, civil societies that have themselves developed the rules that guide their behaviour and the terms of their discourse in the absence of a centralized governing authority. It is hoped that this approach will contribute to this ongoing debate by demonstrating that Cosmopolitan norms can be found in a diverse array of human communities and cultures, that Cosmopolitan norms are not only compatible with pluralism, but are instrumental in its success and vitality, and, finally, that the flourishing of such civil societies shows that the adoption of Cosmopolitan norms are strongly correlated with successful outcomes and well-being

How Atrocity Becomes Law: The Neoliberalisation of Security Governance and the Customary Laws of Armed Conflict

This article discusses the impact of neoliberal ideologies of security governance on the laws of armed conflict, and describes how neoliberal practices of privatisation, outsourcing, and risk management within the security sector have facilitated the legalisation of atrocities. Neoliberal mentalities of governance have significantly impacted military administration in combat operations by decentralising control, by promoting discretion and freedom of action down the chain-of-command, and by institutionalising intent-based orders and standing Rules of Engagement. In so doing, the military has shifted the criteria for attack from one based upon an individual\u27s status as a combatant to one of defining and containing risky populations. Whether used to justify counter-insurgent strikes in Iraq and Afghanistan, military intervention in Libya, or protest policing of the Arab Spring, neoliberalised security governance is designed to be waged not against activities, often political, that authorities perceive as threatening. This article provides a theoretical and historical discussion of what is at stake in such a logic, and illustrates its operation through reference to the intentional killing of civilians in Iraq depicted in the 12 July 2007 video made public by WikiLeaks. It argues that the ideologies and mentalities of neoliberalism in the security sector are not only facilitating such killings, but are in fact facilitating their justification as lawful, thereby normalising civilian atrocities within the laws of armed conflict in ways that can be described as distinctly imperial