Major Hostilities Research Articles

A mini-review on safeguarding global health amidst a "Pandemic" of armed conflicts.

The year 2022 witnessed an alarming surge in state-based armed conflicts globally, reaching a staggering 56, with major hostilities in Ukraine, Myanmar, and Nigeria resulting in over 10,000 estimated conflict-related deaths. This trend continued with the onset of a significant conflict between Israel and Hamas in October 2023. The escalating frequency of armed conflicts, reaching the highest number since 1946, poses a critical threat to global health. This paper explores the multifaceted health impacts of armed conflicts, encompassing physical injuries, infectious diseases, malnutrition, and profound mental health consequences. Healthcare systems in conflict zones face severe strain, and achieving Sustainable Development Goals by 2030 becomes increasingly challenging. The surge in armed conflicts globally is characterized as a "pandemic," justifying urgent attention. The paper identifies and discusses strategies to safeguard public health in conflict zones, emphasizing humanitarian response, protecting healthcare workers and infrastructure, building preparedness and resilience, and promoting mental health support. In navigating this "pandemic" of armed conflicts, comprehensive strategies are imperative to address the intricate challenges and secure a healthier global future.

Biden's Strategic Competition Approach Towards China

Purpose- This paper aims to analysis and explore the causes of Biden's preference for the strategic competition approach to address China's threat. 
 
 Design/methodology/approach- The paper relies on the offensive realism theory as the most relevant theory to examine the US polies and approaches towards China, or US-Sino strategic competition. In particular, the theory is suited to explore Biden's preference for the strategic competition approach, and not the hostile approach. As the theory contends that the great powers are rational actors do not engage in destructive wars if the balance of power is not in their favor.
 
 Findings- Since 2008 U.S perceives China as a most serious threat to its global hegemony. Obama and Trump's administrations have prioritized the strategic competition approach towards China, which aims at containing China's power smoothly without sliding competition to the level of severe hostility. Biden maintained this approach and also, reinforced it to avoid as much as possible major hostility with China. Through, for instance, rallying alliances and multilateralism. Based on that, the study suggests the U.S will prioritize this approach unless China upsets the existing balance by annexing Taiwan or taking full control of the South China Sea. 
 
 Originality/value -The significance of the paper emanates from providing an in-depth analysis and explanation of the cause of the conflict or the cold war between China and the United States, and the main policies and approaches that the United States adopt to deal with China.

“This Grim Game”: Kennedy and Arms Control for Outer Space

Shortly after the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, the U.S. physicist Louis Ridenour penned a short play for Fortune magazine detailing how a future nuclear war might start. “Pilot Lights of the Apocalypse” opens in an underground command center beneath San Francisco, where a small group of high-ranking military officials give the U.S. president a tour of the facility. The commanding general explains that there are over 5,000 bomb-equipped satellites in orbit above the earth, owned by a host of different countries, ready to strike enemy cities in the event of major hostilities. Because such a strike would descend from outer space, however, determining from where an attack originated is impossible. The command staff must therefore rely on “political” data—an ever-shifting list of political agitators—to determine which enemies might have the greatest motivation to initiate a war. No sooner does the president’s tour end when the bunker shakes violently...

Trends in the integration of elements of the space radionavigation system in the means to increase the accuracy of artillery munitions

The article deals with the main issues of implementation of the main trends in the development of artillery weapons. Its increase in the efficiency of the use of artillery shell fragmentation shells by introducing the latest technological developments in the means of correction of the trajectory. The situation that occurred during the Military Operation of the Joint Forces in the Donetsk and Luhansk Oblasts of Ukraine in 2014 required the use of not only light weapons but also more powerful weapons, namely artillery weapons, against illegal armed groups with high spectacular capabilities, maneuverability, clear control system. The experience of fighting in the area of modern military conflicts (the civil war in Syria) confirms the urgency of using high-precision weapons, namely high-precision artillery shells, since major hostilities occur in settlements.

A Call for the Racialization of Immigration Studies

There is more than a century of research that has examined immigrants in the United States. Despite major changes in the origin of immigrants, the assimilation perspective, based on the experiences of European immigrants, continues to be the dominant paradigm used to assess immigrants in this country. While immigrants of color have experienced major hostility and racialization, research continues to largely neglect issues involving race relations. This study provides a historical overview of the racialization of immigrants including immigration policies and shows that the racialization of immigrants has occurred historically but particularly over the past half century as non-Europeans became the primary groups of immigrants in this country. In addition, the study calls for immigration researchers to more fully incorporate race perspectives into the study of immigrants. Furthermore, the study illustrates the need to consider methodological and data approaches to integrate racial matters into the study of immigrants. The article concludes with a discussion of the sociological implications of incorporating race more centrally in the study of immigrants.

The East Asian Peace as a Second-Order Diffusion Effect

While East Asia is often cited as a region at high risk of interstate military conflict, it has remained free of major hostilities since the 1979 Sino-Vietnamese war. In this article, I propose a second-order diffusion dynamic to help explain this East Asian peace. It is based on the stimulus event of China's shift in political-economic models that began in 1978. While the “flying geese” diffusion of open trading and developmental state policies in East Asia began earlier, China's shift contributed to dramatic region-wide change in a key variable: the volume of trade flows. Intraregional trade interdependence did not increase greatly because strong economic growth accompanied increased intraregional trade flows. Rather than interdependence, my argument focuses on the utility of high volumes of trade for interstate crisis signaling to avoid escalation to war. The first-order diffusion of trade-based strategies, I argue, had second-order effects on international relations in East Asia. While China was not the first adopter, diffusion of liberalization to this large, developing economy increased regional trade flows directly and indirectly via increased competitive pressures. The resulting higher flows of intraregional trade then inhibited the escalation of interstate conflicts. Statistical analyses support my contentions while controlling for a number of other plausible contributing factors.

The Defeat of the Invincible Armada: A Myth or a Reality?

Covered in a mist of myth and legend, the story of that summer in the Channel drifted farther and farther from reality. Its actual results were distorted and misstated. There was a long period of uneasy peace and cold war before the actual outbreak of major hostilities. Most English historians have been certain that Elizabeth should have gone to war with Spain long before she did and have blamed her for weakness and reluctance to spend money. The leading Puritans blamed her stubborn refusal to subsidize Protestant leaders on the Continent. No ruler of this century was more sensitive to the economic interests of the country than Elizabeth. By the early 1580's the drift toward war in both countries was becoming irresistible. But neither King Philip nor Queen Elizabeth believed that war was inevitable. They both refused to the last moment to take the step of an open declaration of war. They both wanted to preserve a semblance of peace between their two countries. There were, however, strong arguments for peace. Modern historians have cited the Spanish monopoly of the American trade as a cause of the war. DOI: 10.5901/jesr.2013.v4n3p33

China in International Society: Is 'Peaceful Rise' Possible?

This article reviews China’s position in international society over the past couple of centuries, and against that background assesses the prospects for China’s strategy of ‘peaceful rise’. I stick to the label ‘peaceful rise’ because it is a more accurate statement of the issues than the more anodyne and diplomatic ‘peaceful development’ which has recently replaced it in official Chinese discourse.1 I understand ‘peaceful rise’ to mean that a growing power is able to make both absolute and relative gains in both its material and its status positions, in relation to the other powers in the international system, and to do so without precipitating major hostilities between itself and either its neighbours or other major powers. Peaceful rise involves a two-way process in which the rising power accommodates itself to rules and structures of international society, while at the same time other powers accommodate some changes in those rules and structures by way of adjusting to the new disposition of power and status. I am not going to question whether China will rise or not, though this is done by some.2 Instead, I take China’s continued rise as given, and explore whether its peaceful rise is possible within contemporary international society.

The long shadow: nuclear weapons and security in 21st century Asia

The Long Shadow is the first comprehensive, systematic examination of the roles and implications of nuclear weapons in the dramatically different post-Cold War security environment. Leading experts investigate the roles and salience of nuclear weapons in the national security strategies of twelve countries and the ASEAN states, and their implications for security and stability in a broadly defined Asian security region that includes the Middle East. The study also investigates the prospects for nuclear terrorism in Asia. A chief conclusion of the study is that nuclear weapons influence national security strategies in fundamental ways and that deterrence continues to be the dominant role and strategy for the employment of nuclear weapons. Offensive and defensive strategies may increase in salience but will not surpass the deterrence function. Another major conclusion is that although there could be destabilizing situations, on balance, nuclear weapons have reinforced security and stability in the Asian security region by assuaging national security concerns, strengthening deterrence and the status quo, and preventing the outbreak and escalation of major hostilities. As nuclear weapons will persist and cast a long shadow on security in Asia and the world, it is important to reexamine and redefine old ideas, concepts, and strategies as well as develop new ones relevant to the contemporary era. In line with this, the global nuclear order should be constructed anew based on present realities.

Perceived Stress, Heart Rate, and Blood Pressure among Adolescents with Family Members Deployed in Operation Iraqi Freedom

This study compared the impact of the 2003 Operation Iraqi Freedom on heart rate (HR) and blood pressure (BP) and self-reported stress levels among three groups of self-categorized adolescents: (1) military dependents with family members deployed; (2) military dependents with no family members deployed; (3) civilian dependents. At the onset and end of the "major hostilities" of Operation Iraqi Freedom, 121 adolescents (mean age = 15.8 +/- 1.1 years) completed questionnaires evaluating the psychological impact of the war and were evaluated for HR and BP. The military deployed dependents exhibited significantly higher HR than other groups at both evaluations (both p < 0.04). Ethnicity by group interactions indicated that European American-deployed dependents had higher stress scores at both time points (p < 0.02). Military dependent European Americans exhibited higher systolic BP compared to the other groups on the second evaluation (p < 0.03).

Policing Post-War Iraq: Insurgency, Civilian Police, and the Reconstruction of Society

We present an analysis of the ongoing dynamics of civilian police reform in Iraq since an end to major hostilities was declared in the Spring of 2003. Analyzing the development of Iraq's new police forces since the fall of the Ba'ath regime, our study particularly focuses on the Iraqi police as a preferred target of insurgent attacks. Theoretically, we rely on sociological perspectives on the transformation of the police function in the process of democratization of the polity and apply these insights comparatively to the democratic reform of Iraq's autocratic regime. We argue that the Iraqi insurgency is disproportionately targeted at the new Iraqi civilian police, not because of the role police would fulfill as representatives of the state, but because a well-established and regularly functioning police would represent an important and highly visible indicator of a pacified Iraqi society. First and foremost, we maintain, the insurgency is aimed at the Iraqi police forces in order to prevent a normalization of Iraq's civil society.

Better with the UN? Searching for Peace and Governance in Iraq

It was not our intention to go to Baghdad. And, had we done that, we would have gotten ourselves into the biggest quagmire you can imagine trying to sort out 2000 years of Mesopotamian history. --Colin Powell, 1991 (1) A year has passed since the U.S.-led coalition invaded Saddam Hussein's Iraq for the second time. In the buildup to war, many questioned the wisdom of embarking on military action without multilateral approval. This reluctance to support military intervention was built, in part, out of a fear of the impact of unilateral action on the spirit and practice of multilateralism--hence the efforts by the Bush administration to attempt, albeit in vain, to secure Security Council approval. Few doubted the likely efficacy of the coalition military machine in toppling Hussein. The 1991 Gulf War, the various Balkans ventures, and the Afghanistan campaign had silenced most skeptics of the utility of high-technology weaponry even in asymmetric warfare. Even fewer would have argued that Iraq would not be a better place without Hussein's--as indeed it is. And not many could have anticipated that the United States would have to relearn the lessons of UN peace support missions in its post-Saddam operation, or that the value of the world organization could extend beyond symbolic political niceties to practical assistance with the messy business of winning the peace. However flawed it may seem to its critics in the Bush administration, the system of global governance has emerged enhanced from the difficult events over the past twelve months, while the United States has recognized the political and practical limitations of acting unilaterally. Ironically, the Bush administration is to thank for this, coupled with the imperative of dealing with transnational terrorism in Iraq. Thus, an important but unintended outcome of the U.S.--led invasion of Iraq has been a significant strengthening of the multilateral case for governing a new post--September 11 era. Relearning Old UN Peacekeeping Lessons? By the time of George W. Bush's State of the Union address in January 2004, (2) more than 590 U.S. and coalition soldiers had died in Iraq--250 of which were the result of hostile actions perpetrated since the U.S. president declared major hostilities over on 1 May 2003. (3) Why has the coalition battled to stabilize Iraq? And with the benefit of hindsight, could things have been done better? Answers to these questions are important in understanding what role the UN and other multilateral institutions might have played and could still play. First, the coalition's difficulties are related to the nature of Iraqi society, which the coalition is attempting to transform. Under Hussein, the government of Iraq was a totally arbitrary, almost feudal, system. Baghdad's rule was founded on a pyramid of fear linked with an associated circle of reward. Fear and the consequences of perceived error were palpable and pervasive among civil servants. The circle of reward was an elite system of Ba'athist nepotism and personal patronage run by Hussein and his cronies. The effects of his regime were amplified by the decade and a half of UN-sponsored and U.S.-maintained sanctions, which created an enormously lucrative network of smuggling and contraband and ensured that everything was traded at a premium. Accordingly, with more than forty years of military and Ba'athist rule, it will take some time for the Iraqi people to fully comprehend the impact and responsibilities of their new freedoms. Iraqi society is experiencing a dramatic transition from dictatorship to something different and as yet unspecified. Second, the postconflict, preinvasion planning was poor, partly a result of what has been described as political resistance in Washington to a colonial-type role. But one cannot be a bit pregnant. The scale of the military intervention should have demanded a comparably well-thought-out peacebuilding approach and not the haphazard and continually changing course of action that has ensued. …

The comparability of two hostility measures in a normal group

Hostility and Direction of Hostility Questionnaire (HDHQ) and Personality Deviance Scale (PDS) scores were obtained from a group of normal females in order to compare the major hostility dimensions of extrapunitiveness and intropunitiveness. Statistically significant correlations resulted but only of a moderate order even when the apparently more pathological subscales were omitted from the HDHQ.

A Note on North-South Trade: A Possible Economic Approach to the Viet-Nam Conflict

S peculation about how the war in Viet-Nam might be resolved tends to ignore the role that North-South trade in Viet-Nam may play once major hostilities cease. Yet, the prospects for an economic approach to the war are such that an early resumption of trade could be a significant incentive for peace during what promises at best to be a long period of political conflict still ahead. The war has exaggerated the traditional economic complementarity between North and South Viet-Nam. The renewed prospect of a food surplus in South Viet-Nam in 1971 coincides with the prospect of a continued, and actually worsened food deficit in North Viet-Nam.1 At the same time, the war-born industrial investments in South Viet-Nam will be, in the absence of U.S. assistance, in need of raw materials, such as coal, iron, and cement, that the North can supply. It is not my purpose here to discuss a complete solution to the war, which must necessarily involve the search for satisfactory answers to a wide range of problems. The argument for trading goods not bullets suggests that while a final and permanent solution to the Viet-Nam problem may only emerge after a long lapse of time, it is not inconceivable that temporary trade measures could be taken immediately after a cease-fire which could help to provide a basis for such a solution between the two governments of North and South Viet-Nam. The agreement to trade may be made for a fixed period of time, say from three to five years, and subject to negotiation thereafter. While the cease-fire does imply the North's consent to withdraw its troops from the South, it does not necessarily mean a total absence of sporadic and small-scale fighting after the declaration of truce, since the period of adjustment from war to peace would inevitably take some time.

Ending the War of the Sicilian Vespers

Schneidman's paper treats the case of a war in which major hostilities ended within two years, and the final settlement approximated conditions established within the first year, but where hostilities were nevertheless prolonged or resumed in desultory fashion for two decades. Shneidman provides much useful information on the role of military developments, domestic and external pressures on the various parties, their conflicting objectives, face-saving, etc. He discusses explicitly various peace proposals, an abortive peace treaty in the course of the war, and the conditions under which the war finally did end.

The Far East at the end of the First World War

It has become standard usage to speak of the two wars which began in I914 and in I939 as the first and second world wars, but it is a usage which can be misleading unless the actual geographical scope of serious military and naval operations in each war is kept clearly in mind. In neither war was there any fighting in the Western Hemisphere; as far as the Americas were concerned, the Seven Years War of the eighteenth century has a better claim to universality. In the second world war from I94I to I945 there was an armed struggle in East Asia and the Pacific Ocean comparable in scale and violence to the struggle which raged on the continent of Europe. But the war of I9I4-18 was throughout its course essentially a European war with an extension to the territory of the Ottoman Empire in Asia and areas close to its borders. Outside the theatre of war reaching from the Yser to the Tigris there were only the minor operations required for the liquidation of Germany's overseas colonial empire, and these, except for the campaign in German East Africa, were not only minor, but trivial. It is difficult to regard a struggle in which the range of major hostilities was so circumscribed as really entitled to be called a world war. The effects of the struggle, however, were not limited to the regions in which important fighting fronts were located. The political and economic repercussions of the gigantic armed conflict were felt all over the globe, and nowhere more than in the Far East, where during the two decades before 1914 the enfeebled Manchu-Chinese empire, replaced in 1912 by the Republic of China, had been the object of a complicated international diplomacy with a rivalry for influence among six Great Powers Britain, France, Germany, Russia, the United States, and Japan. The fourth month of the war saw the elimination by an Anglo-

Trends in Mental Hygiene

THE LAST three years have seen the climax and the close of World War II, and the subsequent chaos of a world left weary, cynical, and struggling to resume life on a peacetime pattern. While peace is always a relative term, the year just past can hardly be called peaceful, save in the sense that major hostilities have disappeared from the world scene. In their stead, however, there exists a seething restlessness, a bitter and irritable distrust among individuals, groups, and nations. In such a time as this, workers in the field of mental hygiene are particularly challenged. So many events of major social and emotional interest are happening, that there is difficulty in finding time to take stock, or to develop a perspective. Yet those disciplines which come together in the mental hygiene interest must indeed assume the responsibility which is basically theirs, and clarify to the utmost their immediate and long-term objectives. Today, as never before, world sanity hangs on the virility of the dynamic social sciences, and on the direction charted by them.