Mitochondria at the frontline of environmental toxicity in conflict and crisis zones: mechanisms, models, and countermeasures

A number of studies have used multicountry data sets to analyze the effect of higher military spending on growth in developing countries. E. Benoit's controversial 1973 study used a multicountry data set to provide evidence that military spending was positively associated with growth in LDCs.1 Later studies using multicountry data sets, such as those by D. Lim, S. Deger, S. Chan, and R. Faini, P. Annez, and L. Taylor found evidence that military spending depresses growth in LDCs.2 While multicountry data sets are useful, the effect that higher military spending has on growth does vary substantially among countries, depending on specific policy choices made regarding resource allocation. For this reason, it is also beneficial to use a case study approach in analyzing the relationship between defense spending and economic growth in LDCs. This article provides such a case study. It focuses on the small nation of Sri Lanka, which has recently seen a dramatic increase in its defense spending due to a violent civil war that began in 1983. This study analyzes the economic effects of the Sri Lankan civil war, and the potential future costs that could be associated with a continuation of this conflict.

Chapter 8 suggests that drones will amplify the competition for power and influence between states in conflict zones and produce new risks of deterrence breakdown and crisis escalation. It shows how states are already using drone technology to test the nerves and strategic commitments of their rivals, as well as to conduct surveillance that would otherwise been seen as too risky in crisis zones. This is because drones have changed risk calculations; what was once too dangerous with a manned aircraft is now possible with a drone. These strategic gambits are possible because of their low financial and human costs, as well as the illusion that drones can be used without the risk of escalation. As drones are now being used in more conflict zones around the world, they will begin to quietly reorder the risk calculations behind deterrence and coercion and produce greater chances of miscalculation, error, and accident.

Asymmetric wars require the search for new forms and ways to achieve goals in contemporary military conflicts. One of these forms is to support the capabilities of the security and defense sector (SFA) of NATO partner countries.The official materials of the last three NATO summits, the concept, doctrine and leadership of NATO define the principles of the SFA. This article is devoted to the implementation of SFA.The article is to analysis of SFA implementation measures.In line with the Strategic Concept of the North Atlantic Alliance, NATO is focused on addressing three key challenges, such as collective defense, crisis management, and security-based co-operation, in the interests of defense and security of its members.The NATO Summit in theUKidentified anotherAllianceactivity aimed at strengthening the capabilities of the security and defense sectors of the partner countries, called Security Force Assistance (SFA).According to the NATO guidelines, the SFA refers to the ability to "train and develop national forces in crisis zones" in order to "achieve the ability of the national authorities of partner countries to effectively support security without international assistance". SFA refers to "all NATO actions that develop, improve, or directly support the development of national security and defense forces and their associated institutes." Thus, in the general context, the SFA covers all measures aimed at the development and preparation of the national security and defense sector and is carried out at the tactical, operational, strategic, military-political levels, involves providing advisory assistance from a separate platoon to the ministry. In a wider context, the SFA, though having military orientation, includes such mechanisms for preventing contemporary military conflicts as political, economic, information, legal, and others.In order to implement the SFA, the leadership of theAllianceand individual NATO member states held a series of practical measures. So, at the end of2015, inconnection withRussia's aggression againstUkraine, NATO initiated the creation of a joint multinational group for the training of units for the Armed Forces and the Joint Multinational Training Group (Ukraine).TheUnited Statesbegan the formation of six security assistance brigades (SFABs) whose primary objective was to provide training, counseling, assistance, support and support for operations with coalition forces and partner countries. According to US military experts, the SFABs will achieve the following strategic goals: development of the capabilities of the security forces and defense of the partner countries, the release of regular military brigades from their unrelated functions, provision of, if necessary, the preparation of the infrastructure of the partner countries for the Allied Rapid Reaction Force.The Italian government decided in May 2017 to organize theNATOSecurityForceExcellenceCenterand its location in the capital of the country. It is anticipated that theCenterofExcellencewill be certified and will complete its tasks at the end of 2018.At the tactical level, in line with theAlliance's standards, the following tasks are addressed within the framework of the SFA:organization and conducting of targeted instructor-methodical exercises in accordance with the norms adopted by NATO with the units of the joint and airborne assault brigades, as well as the special forces special forces;familiarization of servicemen of partner countries with new models of weapons, military equipment, means of communication and navigation, and other special equipment;determine the level of readiness of formations for combat operations, taking into account the standards adopted by theAlliance.Along with this, the issue of improving the regulatory and legislative framework, according to which the number of foreign military advisers may, if necessary, be substantially increased to several thousand persons for the entire duration of the SFA operation is relevant.Conclusions. The North Atlantic Alliance is implementing an effective concept of support and development of the capabilities of the security and defense sector and its practical implementation mechanisms that address a wide range of security and defense issues of non-NATO countries. At the same time, implementation of such a concept requires from the partner countries changes in the regulatory framework and appropriate infrastructure preparation.In the following, an analysis of the individual mechanisms for implementing the concept of supporting the security forces at operational and strategic levels will be conducted.

Criminal justice investigators of atrocity crimes work in the same space as Non-Governmental Organisations. Even if having different objectives and mandates in crisis zones, numerous NGOs are also investigating or collecting evidence in the process of pursuing their other mandates, as was observed recently in Ukraine or Rohingya refugee camps. This can cause problems for the investigators of international crimes, and their work of collecting evidence on atrocity crimes in these contexts. This study is based on semi-structured interviews with sixteen experienced investigators from international and national justice institutions. Investigators raised this issue and discussed both benefits and problems of NGOs collecting evidence on atrocity crimes in conflict zones. A thematic analysis was conducted. In the results, investigators acknowledged positive effects of NGOs, such as their ability to quickly begin their operations, gather evidence and identify witnesses. Three problems and challenges of NGO involvement in the field were identified. First, NGO interviews do not always focus on establishing the facts and seeking accountability. Second, NGO involvement often meant that witnesses were interviewed multiple times, leading to inconsistencies in testimony and confusion. Third, NGO methods to interview witnesses can reduce the quality of evidence, for example by allocating insufficient time for thorough questioning, interviewing groups of witnesses simultaneously, or employing suggestive questioning techniques. Investigators described strategies for how they dealt with these problems, and recommended changes to the activities of NGOs. The findings underscore the need for improved collaboration between NGOs and justice institutions to safeguard the well-being of witnesses and the integrity of witness evidence on atrocity crimes.

As digital technologies increasingly intersect with global conflicts, algorithm-driven platforms like Facebook have become complicit in perpetuating gendered violence in crisis zones. Facebook, which is often described as the internet for Myanmar, is examined in this study as one illustrative case to understand how platform algorithms shape and amplify gendered hashtags and user comments that can escalate into real-world violence. While Myanmar is used as a case study, these interactions are not unique to its context rather it reflect a broader pattern of gendered harm that manifests in other conflict-affected areas as well, shaped by the platform’s engagement-driven business model, designed to maximise user attention. Drawing on Section 11 of UNSCR 1325 which talks about the “responsibility of state to put an end to impunity and to prosecute those responsible for war crimes including those relating to sexual and other violence against women and girls”, this study highlights the urgent need for state intervention in addressing algorithmic war crimes, emphasising the role of digital governance in combating gendered digital violence in conflict zones. While social media offers spaces for identity construction, it also replicates systemic gender biases, allowing traditional forms of sexual violence to persist online. With 2025 marking the 25th anniversary of UNSCR 1325, the study argues that war crimes have evolved beyond physical battlegrounds into algorithmic terrains, where digital violence transcends territorial jurisdictions. To mitigate these harms, the article calls for clear definitions of digital gender-based crimes, increased digital literacy, improved content moderation systems and multi-stakeholder governance frameworks that integrate national and regional cybersecurity laws. Through a gender-inclusive approach to digital security, this research advocates for a more accountable and equitable digital landscape, ensuring that technological advancements do not reinforce structural inequalities but instead foster digital justice and protection.

The Penn State Institute for Information Policy (IIP), in collaboration with regional host partners and affiliated institutions, conducted two by-invitation-only Experts' Workshops during 2016, one in London and one in Washington, DC. The full programs from these Workshops can be found on the website of the IIP. One outcome of these Workshops, on separate but broadly related themes, was the submission of articles to the Journal of Information Policy. Following peer review, four of those articles are published here.The first Workshop was on Freedom of Information in Crisis Zones, held at the City University, London, May 26–27. Although freedom of information is a critical issue in nations around the globe, nowhere is it more contested than in zones facing social, ethnic, and political stress, or experiencing armed conflict, or in emergency situations emanating from natural or human-induced disasters. That was the theme of this Workshop.In countries and subnational regions in conflict, control of information becomes a tool in the broader conflict. Competing parties regularly seek to manage information to control conflicts internally through limiting flows to various parties and controlling access to leaders, and externally by influencing international perceptions of legitimacy. Even in regions and countries deemed stable and democratic, journalists and purveyors of information through “new media” often find themselves under pressure, both during calm and emergencies, to provide certain information and refrain from providing other. At the same time, media advocates seek to use media and information technologies to deliver information and assistance to people in distress and danger, and to seek reconciliation between social groups in conflict.The challenges to freedom of information in conflict zones and during times of national and local emergency are unique and call for both empirical inquiry and theoretical insight by the scholarly community. Although much attention has been given in the literature to the justifications for and methods of achieving freedom of information in functioning democracies, it seems that the rapid changes in the global landscape for both natural and political reasons call for an understanding of the unique information needs created by extreme circumstances and the policies required to sustain the free flow of information. This issue includes two articles from this Workshop.The first article is by Eli Avraham, “Changing the Conversation: How Developing Countries Handle the International Media during Disasters, Conflicts and Tourism Crises.” According to Avraham, developing countries' leaders often believe that a negative media image can lead to a tourism crisis and loss of international standing. Using qualitative content analysis of press interviews and examinations of policy, his study uncovers the strategies used by developing countries to handle the media and to affect nations' media representations during and following tourism crises. The “multi-step model for altering place image” is the central theoretical framework. The study illustrates the use of seven strategies: buying news space, developing media relations, raising complaints, applying economic and physical threats, blocking media access, and using testimonies and the Internet.The second article is by J. A. Brambila, “Forced Silence: Determinants of Journalist Killings at Mexico´s States, 2010-2015.” Brambila's article asks, why are some subnational states more dangerous for journalists? The article assesses the association of social variables with the murders of journalists within one single country, Mexico, where forty-one journalists were killed from 2010 to 2015. The article suggests that the violent deaths of journalists in Mexico's thirty-two states are more likely to happen in those subnational polities with high levels of social violence, internal conflict, severe violations of human rights, low democratic development, and economic inequality. The implications of this research and policy recommendations are discussed and presented, with a conclusion.The second IIP Workshop in 2016 was Legal and Policy Dimensions of Cybersecurity, held at the George Washington University School of Media and Public Affairs, Washington, DC, September 28–29, 2016. The Workshop was designed to focus attention on the needed legal and policy responses to society's current cybersecurity challenges. The security of information networks and databases is now a critical element of national security and economic competitiveness. Rapid growth in e-commerce, banking, communication systems, and the internet of things has increased efficiency and driven economic growth, but, by necessity, these systems preclude consumers' control over how and where their data are collected, archived, and processed. Recent high-profile breaches of security at banks and retailers, coupled with secret and not-so-secret efforts by foreign governments and rogue actors to attack critical information infrastructures, have heightened these concerns. There are two articles from this Workshop.The first is by Thomas F. Brier, Jr., “Can the Government Access Our Cloud Data? The Case of Microsoft Ireland.” In the summer of 2016, the United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit released its highly anticipated decision in the “Microsoft Ireland” case, unanimously rejecting the notion that the Government could obtain the contents of e-mails stored overseas by securing a warrant under the Stored Communications Act. In doing so, the court provided one of the first answers to perhaps the most significant regulatory question of the Internet era: how should the limits of governmental access to personal data stored in the cloud be defined? The article discusses, elucidates, and illuminates this decision.The second article is by Mingyi Zhao, Aron Laszka, and Jens Grossklags, “Devising Effective Policies for Bug-Bounty Platforms and Security Vulnerability Discovery.” Bug-bounty programs have the potential to harvest the effort and diverse knowledge of thousands of independent security researchers, but running them at scale is challenging due to misaligned incentives and misallocation of effort. In the article, the authors discuss these challenges in detail and present relevant empirical data. They develop an economic framework consisting of two models that focus on evaluating different policies for improving the effectiveness of bug-bounty programs. Further, they discuss regulatory-policy challenges and questions related to vulnerability research and disclosure, such as mandatory bug bounties and their relation to other cybersecurity policies.

This paper examines the risk perception of Filipino nurses who worked in Libya during the height of post-2011 crisis. The narratives reveal that Filipino nurses took advantage of the massive hiring campaign organized by Libya’s Ministry of Health in 2012, hoping that their migration experiences would result in economic and social rewards as they established their careers in the healthcare industry. After 2 years of adjustment to the conflict-ridden environment, they found themselves situated in another episode of civil war, once again defying the Philippine government’s mandatory repatriation program. Guided by Carretero’s (Risk-taking in unauthorised migration, 2008) thesis, we observed the mechanism of defiance that entails risk-taking as the political crisis loomed. Filipino nurses, especially those who initially refused to leave Libya, embraced an “illusion of control” that eventually reinforced an “unrealistic optimism.” These risk-minimizing strategies have successfully undermined the protective powers of the state. The paper argues that Filipino migrants in crisis zones like Libya undertake risk calculation and reduction, albeit with a tendency to commit risk denial and a false sense of empowerment and exceptionality. In the end, however, it is emphasized that these mechanisms have limitations, depending on the experiences, timing, and risk interpretation of the migrants.

The article focuses on one of the global problems of international relations — creation of a regional security system in the Middle East. There is no multilateral process in the region aimed at the regional stability maintenance, as well as effective mechanisms for controlling conflict and crisis zones. The authors put forward the goal of identifying new trends and prospects for ensuring security in the region. They analyze the accumulated experience, in particular, such security initiatives as the Damascus Declaration, “Peninsula Shield”, “Interpol of the Gulf ”, “Arab NATO”. The weaknesses and strengths of these projects are noted, and significant processes and events in the implementation of these initiatives are highlighted. Particular emphasis is placed on the Gulf sub-region. The scientific novelty of the research is determined by necessity to examine and understand new processes and phenomena at the level of interstate interaction in the region and in the field of security as a whole. The provisions of the concept of regional security complexes by B. Buzan and O. Weaver turned out to be useful for the discourse on security threats and their dynamics in the region. They conclude that the establishment of an inclusive security system in the Middle East appears to be a long-term and multi-layered process. It is necessary to consider the declared problem in a wide context, affecting not only military security issues, but also political, social, economic stability, taking into account the totality of the national interests of all states of the region and the participation of extra-regional actors in this process as well.

The number of refugees and displaced persons around the world has reached historic levels. Education in Emergencies responses have traditionally focused on primary education with higher education opportunities often having been perceived as a luxury. Current statistics on refugee access to education confirms this ongoing trend: 50% of refugee children access primary education, 22% secondary education, and only 1% higher education. Children and youth are particularly vulnerable to losing their right to education, a basic human right that is enshrined in the 1989 Convention on the Rights of the Child and the 1951 Refugee Convention, and is essential to the exercise of many other human rights. In 2015, the United Nations adopted the Sustainable Development Goals, thereby broadening the education mandate to include lifelong learning. Refugee youth have extremely limited options in conflict and crisis zones. However, rapid advances in technology and online learning have laid the foundations for making higher education opportunities accessible for refugee youth. Education fosters innovation and entrepreneurial skills that are important for employability, economic activity, and job creation—elements that are critical for stability during times of reconstruction and for longer term sustainable development. If refugees and internally displaced persons receive a quality education while in exile, they are more likely to develop the necessary skills to make use of the existing economic, social, and political systems in their host communities as well as upon returning home. This paper analyzes the contribution of Open Educational Resources (OERs) to building twenty-first-century skills and explores the value of tutoring and mentoring models, learner retention, learning technologies, and provision of language and subject matter support that best mediate higher level learning in fragile contexts. Variables such as sustainability, operability, equal access, cultural and linguistic ownership, livelihoods, and context relevance were used to analyze available evidence in an effort to inform optimal design and scalability of such learning spaces, as well as their potential use in migrant refugee contexts. The importance of refugee ownership and empowerment are emphasized as vectors for ensuring the sustainability of HE spaces in fragile contexts and for fostering creativity and innovation, thereby feeding into the larger framework of Education for All and Sustainable Development Goal 4.

This chapter reviews research on ethical queries related to translation and interpreting in wartime, conflict-related settings and crisis situations associated with mass migration, humanitarian emergency or gender violence. It focuses on the complexity of the role of translators and interpreters, as well as untrained language-mediators and their perception of various ethical dilemmas that arise in their work. The chapter examines the tasks undertaken by professionals and untrained mediators in conflict and crisis zones in their relations with war victims, migrants, refugees, asylum seekers and gender violence victims. It raises the issues of ethical consideration when using new technologies in training translators and interpreters as well as in institutional affiliations or non-governmental organizations. It stresses the role of codes of ethics for translators and interpreters in conflict or crisis situations and discusses the need and the development of specific codes of ethics for war translators and interpreters.

: The current administration has designated the Department of State as the lead agency in coordinating U.S. government efforts in stabilization and reconstruction. In order to complete this mission, the Department will need to deploy personnel into areas of severe hardship and potential military conflict, as we do today in our embassies and provincial reconstruction teams in Iraq and Afghanistan. In order to fill the jobs in Iraq and Afghanistan, the Department has put in place some compensation, promotion and assignment incentives. Still, it remains a struggle, both in hardship and non-hardship posts, to fill the positions with qualified personnel. This paper addresses the question of how the Foreign Service can prepare itself to be better ready to deploy, in appropriate numbers, to post-conflict and crisis zones around the world. This paper reviews the panoply of the Department's current staffing and funding initiatives and recommends that the Department leadership put together a coherent plan to present Congress in order to obtain the additional resources needed to turn current initiatives into a sustainable program.

The ongoing military conflict in Ukraine has severely contaminated freshwater ecosystems with heavy metal pollutants including lead from ammunition and explosives. This study investigates the physiological and biochemical mechanisms of resistance in the freshwater mollusks. This study examines how freshwater mollusks, specifically Planorbarius corneus and Viviparus viviparus, resist lead compounds. Lead pollution from military activities poses a significant threat to aquatic life due to its toxicity and bioaccumulation. The research investigated species-specific responses to lead exposure, revealing differences in adaptations. Both mollusk species showed increased levels of carotenoids and proteins when exposed to higher lead concentrations, indicating a compensatory response to oxidative stress. These findings enhance our understanding of adaptive mechanisms against lead toxicity in aquatic environments affected by military pollution.