Governance of Dual-Use Technologies: Theory and Practice

The term dual-use characterizes technologies that can have both military and civilian applications. What is the state of current efforts to control the spread of these powerful technologies—nuclear, biological, cyber—that can simultaneously advance social and economic well-being and also be harnessed for hostile purposes? What have previous efforts to govern, for example, nuclear and biological weapons taught us about the potential for the control of these dual-use technologies? What are the implications for governance when the range of actors who could cause harm with these technologies include not just national governments but also non-state actors like terrorists? These are some of the questions addressed by Governance of Dual-Use Technologies: Theory and Practice, the new publication released today by the Global Nuclear Future Initiative of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. The publication's editor is Elisa D. Harris, Senior Research Scholar, Center for International Security Studies, University of Maryland School of Public Affairs. Governance of Dual-Use Technologies examines the similarities and differences between the strategies used for the control of nuclear technologies and those proposed for biotechnology and information technology. The publication makes clear the challenges concomitant with dual-use governance. For example, general agreement exists internationally on the need to restrict access to technologies enabling the development of nuclear weapons. However, no similar consensus exists in the bio and information technology domains. The publication also explores the limitations of military measures like deterrence, defense, and reprisal in preventing globally available biological and information technologies from being misused. Some of the other questions explored by the publication include: What types of governance measures for these dual-use technologies have already been adopted? What objectives have those measures sought to achieve? How have the technical characteristics of the technology affected governance prospects? What have been the primary obstacles to effective governance, and what gaps exist in the current governance regime? Are further governance measures feasible? In addition to a preface from Global Nuclear Future Initiative Co-Director Robert Rosner (University of Chicago) and an introduction and conclusion from Elisa Harris, Governance of Dual-Use Technologiesincludes:On the Regulation of Dual-Use Nuclear Technology by James M. Acton (Carnegie Endowment for International Peace)Dual-Use Threats: The Case of Biotechnology by Elisa D. Harris (University of Maryland)Governance of Information Technology and Cyber Weapons by Herbert Lin (Stanford University

Development Of Soil Conservation Measures In Ellis County With Respect To Economic Gains

The earth is a sphere 8,000 miles in diameter, 25,000 miles in circumference, with a surface of approximately 200,000,000 square miles of which about one-third island and two-thirds water. All life is supported mainly by a thin layer of topsoil which covers the land at an average plow depth of about seven inches. Largely from this soil layer comes the world\u27s annual production of food and fiber products. Less than half of the earth\u27s soils are suitable for crop production. The soil that supports life is created by the forces of nature — the action of the sun, atmosphere, and water on the materials that comprise the earth. Soil is a residue of weathered rocks, minerals, and decaying organic matter which supply mechanical support for vegetation and some raw materials for plant foods. From 500 to 1,000 years are required by nature to produce a single inch of topsoil. Yet, all of this good work of nature may be destroyed by man in a relatively few years by careless land management. Technicians have developed methods of control, and good land use. They have shown many thousands of farmers how to diagnose the physical ills on their own farms. They have shown them how to use this diagnosis to shape an integrated conservation program tailor-made for each individual farm — a program using whatever combination is necessary for terracing, strip-cropping, crop rotations, shifts in land use, and so on

Updating the Farm Bill Safety Net in an Expanding Sea of Risk

Agricultural and Food Policy, Food Consumption/Nutrition/Food Safety, H10,

The Production of Food and Fiber: An Adaptation of CoP Features for Sustainable Water Use in Agribusiness

Citation: Harris, K. D., & James, H. S. (2016). The Production of Food and Fiber: An Adaptation of CoP Features for Sustainable Water Use in Agribusiness. Sustainability, 8(11), 15. doi:10.3390/su8111189Fresh water and arable land are essential for agricultural production and food processing. However, managing conflicting demands over water and land can be challenging for business leaders, environmentalists and other stakeholders. This paper characterizes these challenges as wicked problems. Wicked problems are ill-formed, fuzzy, and messy, because they involve many clients and decisions makers with conflicting values. They are also not solvable, but rather must be managed. How can agribusiness leaders effectively manage wicked problems, especially if they have little practice in doing so? This paper argues that a Community of Practice (CoP) and its tripartite elements of domain, community and practice can be effective in helping businesses manage wicked problems by focusing on the positive links between environmental stewardship and economic performance. Empirically, the paper examines three agribusinesses to assess the extent in which CoP is used as a strategy for sustainable water management

An Alliance Unravels

On 1 September 1951, representatives of Australia , New Zealand , and the United States met in San Fran cisco to sign a treaty of alliance commonly known as the Anzus pact.1 The signing ceremony had been preceded by two years of sporadic negotiations during which the Australians had pressed hard for joint military planning and discu ssion of global strategy. The Americans, however, had been determined to limit formal security arrangements to the minimum necessary to win the consent of their negotiating partners to the relatively mild peace treaty the United States intended to sign with Japan.2 The American view prevailed, and Anzus thus came into being with a council charged with considering matters related to the implementation of the treaty but with no standing military organization and no integrated military force

An examination of transaction interdependency: a perspective in the animal health and nutrition industrial system

The research examining bioscience networks has been studied from two perspectives. One view comes from economics and the other sociology. We examine the technical (material flows) and people aspects (information sharing) of interdependency in the context of economic exchanges in a bioscience network. The empirical contributions are the techniques used to explain the network structure of a burgeoning animal health and nutrition bioscience network and the portability of network analysis concepts that provides the potential to manage diverse business networks. The results suggest the economic exchanges can be traced back to the underlying interactions that safeguard transactions and influence the flow of resources and information

Phylogenetic relationships of Hemidactylus geckos from the Gulf of Guinea islands: patterns of natural colonizations and anthropogenic introductions estimated from mitochondrial and nuclear DNA sequences

Mitochondrial DNA (12S rRNA, 16S rRNA, and cytochrome b) sequences and nuclear sequences (C-mos and alpha-Enolase) were analyzed within all known Hemidactylus species from all three volcanic islands in the Gulf of Guinea that have never been connected to the continent. These comprise both endemic and widespread species. Our aim was to determine if the widespread species was introduced anthropogenically, to determine the number of distinct genetic lineages within the islands, and to determine if the endemic forms constituted a monophyletic group. Our results suggest that a previously undescribed species on São Tomé is the sister taxon to Hemidactylus newtoni, endemic to Annobon. Genetic variation between populations of Hemidactylus greefii from São Tomé and Principe is very high based on mtDNA sequences, but the forms cannot be distinguished using the nuclear DNA sequences. Hemidactylus mabouia appears to have been anthropogenically introduced to all three islands. The island endemics do not form a monophyletic group, suggesting multiple independent colonizations of the islands.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Phylogenetic relationships of Lygodactylus geckos from the Gulf of Guinea islands: rapid rates of mitochondrial DNA sequence evolution?

Mitochondrial DNA (12S rRNA, 16S rRNA and cytochrome b) sequences and nuclear sequences (C-mos) were analysed within Lygodactylus thomensis from three volcanic islands in the Gulf of Guinea that have never been connected to the continent. Our aim was to assess interrelationships between the three subspecies to test a recent hypothesis suggesting high rates of mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) sequence evolution in geckos. Our results indicate, based on mtDNA sequence data, that the three subspecies are genetically differentiated at a level more typically observed between species. However, the forms cannot be differentiated using the nuclear marker C-mos. These results further substantiate the hypothesis of rapid rates of mtDNA sequence evolution in geckos, although the alternative that C-mos is evolving more slowly cannot be discounted. They also suggest that present calibrations for molecular clocks are at the upper limit of divergence over time.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Non-equilibrium estimates of gene flow inferred from nuclear genealogies suggest that Iberian and North African wall lizards (Podarcis spp.) are an assemblage of incipient species

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>The study of recently-diverged species offers significant challenges both in the definition of evolutionary entities and in the estimation of gene flow among them. Iberian and North African wall lizards (<it>Podarcis</it>) constitute a cryptic species complex for which previous assessments of mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) and allozyme variation are concordant in describing the existence of several highly differentiated evolutionary units. However, these studies report important differences suggesting the occurrence of gene flow among forms. Here we study sequence variation in two nuclear introns, <it>β-fibint7 and 6-Pgdint7</it>, to further investigate overall evolutionary dynamics and test hypotheses related to species delimitation within this complex.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>Both nuclear gene genealogies fail to define species as monophyletic. To discriminate between the effects of incomplete lineage sorting and gene flow in setting this pattern, we estimated migration rates among species using both <it>F</it>_<it>ST</it>-based estimators of gene flow, which assume migration-drift equilibrium, and a coalescent approach based on a model of divergence with gene flow. Equilibrium estimates of gene flow suggest widespread introgression between species, but coalescent estimates describe virtually zero admixture between most (but not all) species pairs. This suggests that although gene flow among forms may have occurred the main cause for species polyphyly is incomplete lineage sorting, implying that most forms have been isolated since their divergence. This observation is therefore in accordance with previous reports of strong differentiation based on mtDNA and allozyme data.</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>These results corroborate most forms of Iberian and North African <it>Podarcis </it>as differentiated, although incipient, species, supporting a gradual view of speciation, according to which species may persist as distinct despite some permeability to genetic exchange and without having clearly definable genetic boundaries. Additionally, this study constitutes a warning against the misuse of equilibrium estimates of migration among recently-diverged groups.</p