Download or read book House of Commons Defence Committee Deterrence in the Twenty First Century HC 1066 written by Great Britain: Parliament: House of Commons: Defence Committee and published by The Stationery Office. This book was released on 2014-03-27 with total page 44 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The MoD's financial settlement in the next Comprehensive Spending Review must be made in the light of the need to retain a credible deterrent capacity in the country's Armed Forces. The Committee welcomes the emphasis that the Government places on the importance of cyber defence and the commitment of resources to a new cyber strike capability. But the difficulty in identifying actors in a cyber attack makes the ability to deter that much harder. Similar questions arise in deterrence against the asymmetrical threat of terrorism as it is difficult to identify interests and groups against which a response can be legitimately targeted. The Committee is calling on the MoD to set out how it can make clear that both cyber and terrorist attack will elicit an appropriate and determined response. Looking at the nuclear deterrent, the Committee points out that the UK's ability to effect a nuclear response is not credible in dealing with all threats, and so strong conventional deterrence is also required. And given the importance of communication to the concept of deterrence, investment in diplomatic and intelligence assets must be integral to the UK's security apparatus. The Committee concludes that it would be naive to assume that a decision not to invest in the nuclear deterrent would release substantial funds for investment in other forms of security. The Committee believes that the decision on the retention of the nuclear deterrent, should be made on its own merits.
Download or read book House of Commons Defence Committee UK Armed Forces Personnel and the Legal Framework for Future Operations HC 931 written by Great Britain: Parliament: House of Commons: Defence Committee and published by The Stationery Office. This book was released on 2014-04-02 with total page 162 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: UK military personnel as individuals are properly subject to UK and international law wherever they serve and there are processes to ensure scrutiny of their individual behaviour and legal compliance but, in the last ten years, legal judgments in the UK and elsewhere against the MoD have raised a number of legal, ethical and practical questions for the Armed Forces and their conduct of operations. The growing number of such challenges is leading to a feeling of disquiet amongst military personnel and informed commentators about the extent and scale of judicial involvement in military matters.There are two aspects of the use of human rights law in military operations that most concern the Committee: The extraterritorial application of the European Convention on Human Rights has allowed claims in the UK courts from foreign nationals. However, the requirement for full and detailed investigations of every death resulting from an armed conflict is putting a significant burden on the MoD and the Armed Forces. Secondly, there has been a failure of the accepted principle of combat immunity, most recently evidenced in the Supreme Court majority judgment in June 2013 allowing families and military personnel to bring negligence cases against the MoD for injury or death. This seems to us to risk the judicialisation of war and to be incompatible with the accepted contract entered into by Service personnel and the nature of soldiering.
Download or read book Intervention Why When and How HC 952 written by Great Britain: Parliament: House of Commons: Defence Committee and published by The Stationery Office. This book was released on 2014-04-28 with total page 60 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Defence Committee says the Government must describe the circumstances in which the UK would intervene militarily in the future. A strategic and well-articulated vision of the UK's position in the world and the level of influence it is able to exert would lead to more rational decisions on whether or not to intervene as well as a better public understanding of the rationale for any such future decision. It would also assist in identifying the strategic objective of such operations, contributing to a more coherent UK foreign, defence and security policy. The Committee supports the Government's adoption of an "adaptable posture" in the 2010 Strategic Defence and Security Review. The threats to UK national security remain uncertain and unpredictable and it is important flexibility to deal with them is retained. The current main national security threat was from international terrorism, but the Committee calls on the Government to ensure that the next National Security Strategy gives due weight to the likelihood of a return to an increased threat of state versus state conflict. The Government needs to resolve the balance between Parliament's essential role as a strategic inquisitor on military deployments and the use of the Royal Prerogative in conflict decisions. The Government should commit to ensuring that a summary of the legal justification on military action is available to Parliament in advance of any debate. The Government should also set out how it intends to define and assess successful exit strategies and end states.
Download or read book The Work of the Joint Committee on the National Security Strategy in 2013 14 HL 169 HC 1257 written by Great Britain: Parliament: Joint Committee on the National Security Strategy and published by The Stationery Office. This book was released on 2014-04-30 with total page 32 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Work Of The Joint Committee On The National Security Strategy In 2013-14 (HC 169, HL 1257) covers the work of the Joint Committee on the National Security Strategy, which was established with a broad role; to consider the National Security Strategy. In practice, the Committee has considered not only the National Security Strategy (NSS) document 'A Strong Britain In An Age Of Uncertainty: The National Security Strategy' published by the Government in 2010 (see below), but also the wider strategy that underlies government decision making on matters affecting national security. The report gives an account of activities over the past year, highlighting in particular the evidence session with the Prime Minister in January 2014; draws attention to areas of continuing concern; and outlines objectives for the remainder of the Parliament.
Download or read book HC 994 Afghanistan written by Great Britain: Parliament: House of Commons: Defence Committee and published by The Stationery Office. This book was released on 2014-05-13 with total page 44 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This report expresses the hope that the new President of Afghanistan will move swiftly to sign the Bilateral Security Agreement and Status of Forces Agreement in order to confirm the legal basis on which international forces will operate in Afghanistan post-2014. If a new ISAF Status of Forces Agreement is signed, in addition to the UK military training mission, other UK Government Departments will also be conducting activities in Afghanistan. The ability of these agencies to operate will be determined by what is likely to be an uneven security situation and there needs to be assurance that a cross government response to ensure a Comprehensive Approach to the work of all UK Government Departments and agencies in Afghanistan will be maintained. The potential for post election conflict in Afghanistan will be heavily influenced by the extent to which the unsuccessful candidates accept the results and the extent to which those who are successful are able to develop consent for Afghan security forces to secure the country to allow it to develop. Lasting peace in Afghanistan can only be achieved through a process of reconciliation with the Taliban. This particular Inquiry has examined the progress of withdrawal of UK forces and equipment, the expected assistance to the Afghan National Security Forces after 2014, the impact on Afghanistan of the new Government in Pakistan, and UK relations with Afghanistan and Pakistan after 2014
Download or read book The Abolition of the Death Penalty in the United Kingdom written by Julian B. Knowles and published by . This book was released on 2015 with total page 67 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book Fostering Integrity in Research written by National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine and published by National Academies Press. This book was released on 2018-01-13 with total page 327 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The integrity of knowledge that emerges from research is based on individual and collective adherence to core values of objectivity, honesty, openness, fairness, accountability, and stewardship. Integrity in science means that the organizations in which research is conducted encourage those involved to exemplify these values in every step of the research process. Understanding the dynamics that support â€" or distort â€" practices that uphold the integrity of research by all participants ensures that the research enterprise advances knowledge. The 1992 report Responsible Science: Ensuring the Integrity of the Research Process evaluated issues related to scientific responsibility and the conduct of research. It provided a valuable service in describing and analyzing a very complicated set of issues, and has served as a crucial basis for thinking about research integrity for more than two decades. However, as experience has accumulated with various forms of research misconduct, detrimental research practices, and other forms of misconduct, as subsequent empirical research has revealed more about the nature of scientific misconduct, and because technological and social changes have altered the environment in which science is conducted, it is clear that the framework established more than two decades ago needs to be updated. Responsible Science served as a valuable benchmark to set the context for this most recent analysis and to help guide the committee's thought process. Fostering Integrity in Research identifies best practices in research and recommends practical options for discouraging and addressing research misconduct and detrimental research practices.
Download or read book Renewed Great Power Competition written by Ronald O'Rourke and published by . This book was released on 2019-08-22 with total page 42 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: World events in recent years have led observers, particularly since late 2013, to conclude that the international security environment in recent years has undergone a shift from the post-Cold War era that began in the late 1980s and early 1990s, also sometimes known as the unipolar moment (with the United States as the unipolar power), to a new and different situation that features, among other things, renewed great power competition with China and Russia and challenges by these two countries and others to elements of the U.S.-led international order that has operated since World War II. The shift to renewed great power competition has become a major factor in the debate over future U.S. defense spending levels, and has led to new or renewed emphasis on the following in discussions of U.S. defense strategy, plans, and programs: * grand strategy and geopolitics as part of the context for discussing U.S. defense budgets, plans, and programs; * nuclear weapons and nuclear deterrence;* new U.S. military service operational concepts;* U.S. and NATO military capabilities in Europe;* capabilities for conducting so-called high-end conventional warfare (i.e., largescale, high-intensity, technologically sophisticated warfare) against countries such as China and Russia; * maintaining U.S. technological superiority in conventional weapons;* speed of weapon system development and deployment as a measure of merit in defense acquisition policy;* mobilization capabilities for an extended-length large-scale conflict against an adversary such as China or Russia;* minimizing reliance in U.S. military systems on components and materials from Russia and China; and* capabilities for countering so-called hybrid warfare and gray-zone tactics employed by countries such as Russia and China.
Download or read book Britannia and the Bear written by Victor Madeira and published by Boydell & Brewer Ltd. This book was released on 2014 with total page 342 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A compelling new narrative about how two Great Powers of the early twentieth century did battle, both openly and in the shadows Decades before the Berlin Wall went up, a Cold War had already begun raging. But for Bolshevik Russia, Great Britain - not America - was the enemy. Now, for the first time, Victor Madeira tells a story that has been hidden away for nearly a century. Drawing on over sixty Russian, British and French archival collections, Britannia and the Bear offers a compelling new narrative about how two great powers of the time did battle, both openly and in theshadows. By exploring British and Russian mind-sets of the time this book traces the links between wartime social unrest, growing trade unionism in the police and the military, and Moscow's subsequent infiltration of Whitehall. As early as 1920, Cabinet ministers were told that Bolshevik intelligence wanted to recruit university students from prominent families destined for government, professional and intellectual circles. Yet despite these early warnings, men such as the Cambridge Five slipped the security net fifteen years after the alarm was first raised. Britannia and the Bear tells the story of Russian espionage in Britain in these critical interwar years and reveals how British Government identified crucial lessons but failed to learn many of them. The book underscores the importance of the first Cold War in understanding the second, as well as the need for historical perspective ininterpreting the mind-sets of rival powers. Victor Madeira has a decade's experience in international security affairs, and his work has appeared in leading publications such as Intelligence and National Securityand The Historical Journal. He completed his doctorate in Modern International History at Gonville and Caius College, Cambridge.
Download or read book The Evolving Strategy of Policing written by George L. Kelling and published by . This book was released on 1989 with total page 16 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book An Inquiry Into the Culture Practices and Ethics of the Press written by Leveson Inquiry and published by The Stationery Office. This book was released on 2012-11-29 with total page 50 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The main report is available separately (HC 780, ISBN 9780102981063).
Download or read book The Road to Sustained Growth in Jamaica written by World Bank and published by World Bank Publications. This book was released on 2004 with total page 226 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Despite having a number of potential attributes (such as being English-speaking, having poverty levels below that of comparable countries and a reasonably well-educated labour force), Jamaicas economic history is marked by the paradoxes of low growth in GDP and high employment despite high investment and important achievements in poverty reduction. This publication seeks to examines these issues, and topics discussed include: poverty reduction and income inequality; whether Jamaicas GDP growth has been underestimated; policy options for reducing the fiscal and debt burden, revitalising the financial system; improving education outcomes, tackling the economic costs of crime, and improving international competitiveness.
Download or read book Regulating Gun Sales written by Daniel W Webster and published by Johns Hopkins University Press+ORM. This book was released on 2013-03-26 with total page 32 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This excerpt from the “masterful, timely, data-driven” study of the gun control debate examines the potential of stronger purchasing laws (Choice). As the debate on gun control continues, evidence-based research is needed to answer a crucial question: How do we reduce gun violence? One of the biggest gun policy reforms under consideration is the regulation of firearm sales and stopping the diversion of guns to criminals. This selection from the major anthology of studies Reducing Gun Violence in America presents compelling evidence that stronger purchasing laws and better enforcement of these laws result in lower gun violence. Additional material for this edition includes an introduction by Michael R. Bloomberg and Consensus Recommendations for Reforms to Federal Gun Policies from the Johns Hopkins University.
Download or read book Hard Time written by Ted McCoy and published by Athabasca University Press. This book was released on 2012 with total page 350 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The success and failure of prison reform and the corresponding social history of punishment in Canada.
Download or read book The Baha Mousa Public Inquiry report written by Baha Mousa Public Inquiry and published by The Stationery Office. This book was released on 2011-09-08 with total page 420 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The terms of reference for this inquiry were to investigate and report on the circumstances surrounding the death of Baha Mousa and the treatment of those detained with him. It takes account of previous investigations that have already taken place, in particular where responsibility lay for approving the practice of conditioning detainees by any members of the 1st Battalion, The Queen's Lancashire Regiment in Iraq in 2003.The report is divided into four modules: the history of the use of conditioning techniques (from the time of internment in Northern Ireland in the early 1970s up to and including March 2003; Baha Mousa and other detainees; training and the chain of command; the future - what has happened since 2003 is considered in relation to conditioning techniques.Baha Mousa died with 93 injuries in custody in Basra in 2003. His relatives claim he was beaten to death by troops. The inquiry concluded that his death was caused by a combination of his weakened physical state and a final struggle with his guards.The Inquiry has criticised the conduct of individual soldiers, senior army officers and their legal advisers and also failures in the chain of command. The lack of training and preparation British troops received for the invasion of Iraq is also highlighted. The report found that systematic abuse of civilians by British troops did not happen.There are 64 recommendations to the Ministry of Defence including that the MoD should keep its current absolute prohibition on the use of hoods on captured personnel. Arguments for the ban are overwhelming and a return to their use is difficult to justify
Download or read book Independent Commission on Banking final report written by Independent Commission on Banking and published by The Stationery Office. This book was released on 2011-09-13 with total page 364 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Independent Commission on Banking's final recommendations aim to create a more stable and competitive basis for UK banking for the long term. The result would be a banking system that is much less likely to cause, or succumb to, financial crises and the huge costs they bring; is self-reliant, so that the taxpayer does not have to bear the losses that banks make; and is effective and efficient at providing the basic banking services of safeguarding retail deposits, operating secure payments systems, and efficiently channelling savings to productive investments in the economy. Stability is crucial and UK banks should have more equity capital and loss-absorbing debt - beyond what has so far been internationally agreed - and their retail banking activities should be structurally separated, by a ring-fence, from wholesale and investment banking activities. The Commission also address competition, which has not been properly effective in UK retail banking. They recommend a seamless switching system based on redirection for personal and small business current accounts, free of cost and risk, complemented by measures to enhance transparency. The new Financial Conduct Authority should have a clear duty to promote effective competition. Structural reform should be complete by the Basel implementation date of 2019 at the latest. These reforms would result in better-capitalised, less leveraged banking more focused on the needs of savers and borrowers in the domestic economy. At the same time UK banks would be free to flourish in global markets, but without UK taxpayer support.
Download or read book Contract Law Minimalism written by Jonathan Morgan and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 2013-11-07 with total page 314 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Commercial contract law is in every sense optional given the choice between legal systems and law and arbitration. Its 'doctrines' are in fact virtually all default rules. Contract Law Minimalism advances the thesis that commercial parties prefer a minimalist law that sets out to enforce what they have decided - but does nothing else. The limited capacity of the legal process is the key to this 'minimalist' stance. This book considers evidence that such minimalism is indeed what commercial parties choose to govern their transactions. It critically engages with alternative schools of thought, that call for active regulation of contracts to promote either economic efficiency or the trust and co-operation necessary for 'relational contracting'. The book also necessarily argues against the view that private law should be understood non-instrumentally (whether through promissory morality, corrective justice, taxonomic rationality, or otherwise). It sketches a restatement of English contract law in line with the thesis.
