War Without Humans: From Liberal War to the Constitution of Global Imperial Sovereignty

Military security policy is in flux, and the changes exhibit a seeming paradox.  On the one hand, component of the nuclear weapons arsenal of the United States -- the bedrock of deterrent stability for decades -- are falling into disrepair, as if international war were becoming obsolete. On the other hand, and at precisely the same time, we learn almost weekly of U.S. drone-borne missile attacks, expressive of what President Obama characterizes as a war that will be prosecuted for the long term and what some analysts describe as the new normal of perpetual war. It is apparent that how foreign policy makers and military strategists think about, imagine and prepare for war is changing notably.Duvall will address the newly emerging conceptualization of war. He asks how this emerging image -- which he calls war without humans, in which humans are largely removed from direct participation on the battlefield through the use of drones, battlefield robotics, cyber warfare, and the weaponization of orbital space -- affects the constitutive foundation of the nation-state system, the principle of territorial state sovereignty. The book he is writing shows that war without humans becomes a dominant conception -- and practice--of war, it erodes the fundamental principle of territorally sovereign state and the nation-state system that that principle sustains.In place of territorial state sovereignty, this conception bolsters the development of a distinct structure of global authority -- a globally centralized, but de-territoralized, imperial form that I call empire of the future. The ultimate paradox then is that far from replacing sovereign power, war without humans gives risk to a potentially more sinister form of sovereign power.Ohio State University. Mershon Center for International Security StudiesEvent web page, Event photo

Some strategies for sustaining a walking routine: Insights from experienced walkers

This study explores the strategies that experienced walkers felt were most useful for sustaining outdoor walking routines. To investigate this issue, a survey-based instrument was used in combination with a Conceptual Content Cognitive Mapping (3CM) exercise. Methods: Seventy-one experienced walkers were asked to complete the 3CM exercise to explore the strategies that have helped them regularly walk outdoors. After 1 week these same individuals received a survey investigating these same issues as well as demographics and physical activity participation. Results: There was general agreement between 3CM and survey data with respect to the strategies used by experienced walkers. The most highly endorsed strategies involved using health goals and supportive walking environments. Survey results also revealed that those more likely to endorse the use of social support took fewer walks per week, but engaged in more nonwalking related physical activity. Conclusions: Overall, the findings suggest that experienced walkers use a variety of strategies. Strategies such as focusing of the positive health outcomes, using attractive natural settings, and developing realistic action plans appeared to be the most useful. These results also indicate the 3CM technique may be an effective way to explore beliefs and motivations regarding physical activity.McIntire-Stennis grant from the Ecosystem Management Initiative, School of Natural Resource and Environment, University of MichiganPeer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/95719/1/Duvall_&_De_Young_(2013)_Some_strategies_for_sustaining_a_walking_routine,_JPAH,_10,_10-18.pdf-

The Politics, Power, and Pathologies of International Organizations.

Do international organizations really do what their creators intend them to do? In the past century the number of international organizations (1Os) has increased exponentially, and we have a variety of vigorous theories to explain why they have been created. Most of these theories explain IO creation as a response to problems of incomplete information, transaction costs, and other barriers to Pareto efficiency and welfare improvement for their members. Research flowing from these theories, however, has paid little attention to how IOs actually behave after they are created. Closer scrutiny would reveal that many IOs stray from the efficiency goals these theories impute and that many IOs exercise power autonomously in ways unintended and unanticipated by states at their creation. Understanding how this is so requires a reconsideration of IOs and what they do. In this article we develop a constructivist approach rooted in sociological institutionalism to explain both the power of IOs and their propensity for dysfunctional, even pathological, behavior. Drawing on long-standing Weberian arguments about bureaucracy and sociological institutionalist approaches to organizational behavior, we argue that the rational-legal authority that IOs embody gives them power independent of the states that created them and channels that power in particular directions. Bureaucracies, by definition, make rules, but in so doing they also create social knowledge. They define shared international tasks (like "development"), create and define new categories of actors (like "refugee"), create new interests for actors (like "promoting human rights"), and transfer models of political organization around the world (like markets and democracy.) However, the same normative valuation on impersonal, generalized rules that defines bureaucracies and makes them powerful in We are grateful t

Impact of COVID-19 on cardiovascular testing in the United States versus the rest of the world

Objectives: This study sought to quantify and compare the decline in volumes of cardiovascular procedures between the United States and non-US institutions during the early phase of the coronavirus disease-2019 (COVID-19) pandemic. Background: The COVID-19 pandemic has disrupted the care of many non-COVID-19 illnesses. Reductions in diagnostic cardiovascular testing around the world have led to concerns over the implications of reduced testing for cardiovascular disease (CVD) morbidity and mortality. Methods: Data were submitted to the INCAPS-COVID (International Atomic Energy Agency Non-Invasive Cardiology Protocols Study of COVID-19), a multinational registry comprising 909 institutions in 108 countries (including 155 facilities in 40 U.S. states), assessing the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on volumes of diagnostic cardiovascular procedures. Data were obtained for April 2020 and compared with volumes of baseline procedures from March 2019. We compared laboratory characteristics, practices, and procedure volumes between U.S. and non-U.S. facilities and between U.S. geographic regions and identified factors associated with volume reduction in the United States. Results: Reductions in the volumes of procedures in the United States were similar to those in non-U.S. facilities (68% vs. 63%, respectively; p = 0.237), although U.S. facilities reported greater reductions in invasive coronary angiography (69% vs. 53%, respectively; p < 0.001). Significantly more U.S. facilities reported increased use of telehealth and patient screening measures than non-U.S. facilities, such as temperature checks, symptom screenings, and COVID-19 testing. Reductions in volumes of procedures differed between U.S. regions, with larger declines observed in the Northeast (76%) and Midwest (74%) than in the South (62%) and West (44%). Prevalence of COVID-19, staff redeployments, outpatient centers, and urban centers were associated with greater reductions in volume in U.S. facilities in a multivariable analysis. Conclusions: We observed marked reductions in U.S. cardiovascular testing in the early phase of the pandemic and significant variability between U.S. regions. The association between reductions of volumes and COVID-19 prevalence in the United States highlighted the need for proactive efforts to maintain access to cardiovascular testing in areas most affected by outbreaks of COVID-19 infection

2012 ACCF/AHA/ACP/AATS/PCNA/SCAI/STS guideline for the diagnosis and management of patients with stable ischemic heart disease

The recommendations listed in this document are, whenever possible, evidence based. An extensive evidence review was conducted as the document was compiled through December 2008. Repeated literature searches were performed by the guideline development staff and writing committee members as new issues were considered. New clinical trials published in peer-reviewed journals and articles through December 2011 were also reviewed and incorporated when relevant. Furthermore, because of the extended development time period for this guideline, peer review comments indicated that the sections focused on imaging technologies required additional updating, which occurred during 2011. Therefore, the evidence review for the imaging sections includes published literature through December 2011

Taking sovereignty out of this world: space weapons and empire of the future

Programs to deploy weapons in orbital space have important implications for international relations. In this paper, we analyze the constitutive logic of three modes of space weaponization currently being pursued by the United States – space-based missile defense, space control, and force application from orbital space. We show that these technologies of killing, when bundled together, constitute a new form of centralized sovereign power in a context of de-territorialized sovereignty. This is a new type of international political society, which we call empire of the future, distinct from and more ominous than the de-centralized form of Empire theorized by Hardt and Negri and the modern expression of classical hegemony now widely debated in discussions of putative American empire