The first efforts to formulate the norms banning the use of force were reflected in the 1928 Kellogg–Briand pact. In the contemporary international law, prohibition of force has gained an extremely immense significance with the balance of powers changing and the processes of globalisation picking up pace. Emerging threats and the legal character of how different states respond to them is one of the most pressing topics of today’s international law. Obviously, the authors of the Charter could not have foreseen the modern challenges for the international peace and security, like the threat of weapons of mass destruction and the terrorism. The peacekeeping forces, the peace agenda, the humanitarian intervention have come to be the new examples of response to the contemporary challenges for the international peace and security and of a flexible practical application of the Charter’s provisions.

資訊革命伴隨全球化時代的來臨，使得具備跨國性、複雜性的綜合安全議題，成為當代世界各國關注的焦點，同時也改變了過去以戰爭行動做為確保主權國家安全的傳統圖像，此一環境的改變，促使世界各國興起軍事國防轉型的熱潮。 中共受到1991年第一次波灣戰爭的啟示，以及藉由改革開放所帶來的經濟成長及綜合國力的提升，加速了其軍事現代化的腳步，對於我國國家安全的威脅更甚以往。我國除了面對國際社會體系變遷及全球化進程所衍生的新安全問題外，來自中共軍事的傳統威脅也日趨嚴峻。 在國內方面，受到整體政治環境隨著戒嚴與動員勘亂體制的廢除、黨禁、報禁的開放及透過憲法與法律制度的改革，在80年代逐漸由威權體制朝民主政體發展，進一步促成國防改革的驅動力。綜合上述國際環境、中共軍事威脅及國內政治體制變化，使得我國在國防政策上面臨轉型的重大的挑戰。 本研究主要目的，是透過自民國81年起至今發行的10本國防報告書及國、內外有關戰略及國防政策、戰略相關議題的著作、期刊、論文及官方文件的蒐集，藉由國際情勢、兩岸互動以及國內政治環境之變化等面向分析，提供讀者瞭解我國自民國81年以來國防政策的演變歷程與外在因素的關係。 關鍵字：國防報告書、國防政策、國防轉型 / With the coming era of globalization, a revolution of information does not only cause each country in world to place emphasis on addressing the comprehensive and complex issues with regard to the international security but reconstruct the framework of national security which is originally based on the warfare operation. This shifted the relationship among countries and contributed significantly to a trend of reform regarding national defense in each country around the world. What promoted the PRC’s military modernization are the domestic rapid economic growth and comprehensive national strength that is activated by the reform and open policy. However, this brings a serious threat to national security much more than ever before. Now, not only does our nation have to cope with the problems in globalization as well as power shift of the international society but we also have to confront the conventional military threat form the PRC. On the other hand, the development from an authority system to the democratic polity, which did away with the martial law and established open policy including abolishment of suppression of factions and restrictions on medium, facilitated our national defense system to reform in the 80s. In short, that are those factors with respect to the international relationship, military threats from the PRC, and shits of domestic polity bring the great challenge to our national defense policy while reforming. This paper explored ten national defense reports published in 1992 to date, and speculated works, journals and theses regarding discussion over national defense policy and strategy and the collections of official documents, so as to have readers comprehend the relations between the process of NDP reform and some outside factors. This research is based on the data analysis in 1992 to date within the realm of international circumstance, interactions across straight, and the shift in domestic policy. Key words: national defence report, national defence policy (NDP), national defence reform

EUROPEAN DEFENCE INDUSTRY IN TIMES OF AUSTERITY ABSTRACT The end of the Cold War has marked the shift in bipolar world order. Changing geopolitical, economic and social environments, as well as rapid technological progress, have led to deep restructure of defence entities in Europe. The process of gradual national defence industries restructure and consolidation has been spreading across European borders, affecting every defence industrial sector. Thereof, this thesis aims to analyse the process of European Defence Industry's restructuring and integration process. It scrutinizes the process in terms of the European Defence Industrial Base on the one side and international integration efforts on the other. It investigates drivers of change for the defence industry, particularly: decreasing budgets, changing relationship between state and defence industry, advancement of technological innovations, importance of civil sector and internationalization of national defence companies. Regarding the restructuring process, the thesis examines National Defence Policies of Germany, France and the United Kingdom towards their respective National Defence Technology Industrial Bases along with the applications of these policies on the defence integration process within the EU. Key words: Defence industry, European Defence...

1 online resource ([8], 326 leaves) / Criminal and Procedural Law / LLD

Public sectors in the developed and emerging economies have been witnessing a period of intense change over the past three decades as a result of the development of free-market economy across the globe. In the UK, the public sector in 1970s (that comprised of nationalised industries) was severely criticised for being wasteful, and subject to political intervention, thereby making them inefficient systems for delivering public services. To put matters right, successive governments from the late 1970s embarked on public sector reforms. These reforms centred on increasing the role of private sector in delivering public services. Privatisation, the implementation of accruals-based accounting and application of compulsory competitive tendering in the public sector were some of these reforms. Public-private partnerships, including private finance initiatives (PFIs), introduced in the 1990s, were a continuation of these reforms. In the defence sector, various reforms carried out prior to 1990s failed to completely remove cost and time overruns in defence projects. PFIs were introduced to further rectify the failures of previous reforms in the defence sector because they were purported to provide better value for money. Defence PFIs are long-term agreements whereby the Ministry of Defence, MoD, contracts to purchase quality services on a long-term basis from the private sector (through the special purpose vehicle, SPV) in which the private sector provides all the finance required in constructing the asset that is used to provide the services. Value for money of PFIs is about economy, efficiency and effectiveness. The question, though is whether, Defence PFIs provide value for money as claimed by the MoD? The purpose of this thesis is to evaluate the effectiveness of three categories: 1) accommodation, 2) equipment and 3) training of Defence PFIs by assessing the financial robustness (over a six-year period) of the SPVs engaged in their delivery. This research employs a multi-method methodological approach to gather data. Qualitative research methods were employed in exploring and understanding customer-supplier relationships and included, PPPs, PFIs in general (and Defence PFIs in particular), the public sector reforms that brought about private sector integration, 4 defence reforms, and Defence PFI policies. Quantitative research was used to collect and evaluate financial data on SPVs (used in Defence PFIs). Research analysis provided mixed results regarding the financial robustness of SPVs employed in the delivery of Defence PFIs. The profit margins of SPVs involved in the delivery of Defence PFIs relating to the category of accommodation were the highest. This is followed by SPVs in the category of Defence equipment and then by SPVs in the category of Defence training. Interestingly, the majority of SPVs involved in the delivery of Defence PFIs relating to accommodation have sound financial health. On the other hand, most SPVs relating to the other two categories have serious financial problems and therefore show cause for concern. Based on research findings of this study, a number of important policy recommendations are advanced to raise the effectiveness of PFIs in the defence sector and the wider public sector.

This thesis will inquire into the practicable strategies that Thomas Hobbes described in his major works of political philosophy, on the one hand, to allow his sovereign to ensure civil peace, and on the other, to enable his sovereign to defend the commonwealth. In terms of civil peace, the exercise of Hobbes's sovereign's 'absolute' authority is tempered by, and contingent on, its practical efficacy for securing and maintaining a peaceful commonwealth. To that end, I will argue that Hobbes's sovereign is obliged to rule according to the natural laws, and entailed in this obligation are coinciding liberties which Hobbes believed that subjects must perceive themselves to possess, and which sovereigns must respect, in order for peace to be realised. However, rather than situating the purpose of Hobbes's project in terms of civil peace alone—as the vast majority of his interpreters have—I consider alongside the purpose of civil peace, and contrast it with, the purpose of defence. Evident from this comparison is that the means by which Hobbes's sovereign must ensure the capability of the commonwealth to defend itself from foreign nations simultaneously undermines and counteracts his otherwise proto-liberal system. Distinct from other prominent interpretations, I will argue that this ambivalence is not a result of an imbalance between subjects' rights contra sovereign's rights, nor yet of an unsupervised agonistic counter-balance between the two. Instead, the affirmation of subjects' inalienable rights are depicted by Hobbes as a practically ineffective means by which to ensure defence. There exists a necessary ambivalence within Hobbes's theory of sovereignty itself and is to be managed solely according to the sovereign's ideally prudent and practicable judgment. Ultimately, I will characterize Hobbes as arguing that the unfortunate necessity of preparedness for foreign defensive wars is best mitigated by the sovereign's prudent and minimal exercise of the commonwealth's power in carrying out this intended purpose.

No description available.

One of the most surprising realisations to emerge from metagenomics studies in the early ‘00s was that the population of viruses and phages in nature is about 10 times larger than the population of prokaryotic organisms. Thus, bacteria and archaea are under constant pressure to develop resistance methods against a population of viruses with extremely high turnover and evolution rates, in what has been described as an evolutionary “arms race”. A novel, adaptive and heritable immune system encoded by prokaryotic genomes is the CRISPR/Cas system. Arrays of clustered regularly interspersed short palindromic repeats (CRISPR) are able to incorporate viral or plasmid sequences which are then used to inactivate the corresponding invader element via an RNA interference mechanism. A number of CRISPR-associated (Cas) protein families are responsible for the maintenance, expansion and function of the CRISPR loci. This system can be classified in a number of types and subtypes that differ widely in their gene composition and mode of action. This thesis describes the biochemical characteristics of CRISPR-mediated defense in the crenarchaeon Sulfolobus solfataricus. The process of CRISPR loci transcription and their subsequent maturation into small guide crRNA units by the processing endonuclease of the system (Cas6) is investigated. After this step, different pathways and effector proteins are involved in the recognition and silencing of DNA or RNA exogenous nucleic acids. This thesis reports the identification and purification of a native multiprotein complex from S. solfataricus P2, the Cmr complex, a homologue of which has been found to recognise and cleave RNA targets in P. furiosus. The recognition and silencing of DNA targets in E. coli has been shown to involve a multiprotein complex termed CASCADE as well as Cas3, a putative helicase-HD nuclease. S. solfataricus encodes orthologues for the core proteins of this complex, and the formation and function of an archaeal CASCADE is investigated in this thesis.

Current therapies for chronic inflammatory diseases often abrogate the immune functions required to fight infections. Human cathelicidin host defence peptide (HDP) LL-37 selectively suppresses pathogen-induced inflammation, without compromising resistance to infections. These unique dual abilities of LL-37 make it a promising candidate as an alternative therapeutic for treating chronic inflammatory diseases. The objective of this study was to investigate the effects of LL-37 and its derivative peptide IG-19 in cytokine-mediated inflammation. I demonstrated that LL-37 and IG-19 selectively suppressed cytokine IL-32γ-induced pro-inflammatory cytokines, without compromising the production of anti-inflammatory cytokines, and chemokines in human PBMC and macrophages. However, significant quantitative differences between LL-37 and IG-19-mediated chemokine productions suggested that the mechanisms underlying the activity of these two peptides were different. I showed that both peptides suppressed IL-32γ-mediated phosphorylation of the Src-kinase FYN(Y420), known to enhance inflammation. Contrastingly, phosphorylation of the dual phosphatase MKP-1(S359), a negative regulator of inflammation, was enhanced in response to both peptides. Similarly, both peptides increased the activity of p44/42MAPK, which phosphorylates and stabilizes MKP-1. These results suggested that MKP-1 may be a critical mediator of the immunomodulatory activity of these peptides. Bioinformatic interrogation revealed that direct interacting protein partners of MKP-1 were overrepresented in MAPK and NF-κB signalling pathways. Both peptides enhanced the phosphorylation of p38MAPK. However, contrasting to LL-37, IG-19 did not mediate the phosphorylation of JNK MAPK and IKK-α signaling intermediates involved in inflammation. This was consistent with observations that chemokine production was significantly lower in response to IG-19 compared to LL-37. These results suggested that IG-19 may be a better immunomodulatory therapeutic candidate compared to LL-37. As cytokine-mediated inflammation plays critical roles in the disease pathogenesis of inflammatory arthritis, I examined the effects of exogenous administration of IG-19 in a murine model of collagen-induced arthritis. Administration of IG-19 decreased disease severity, suppressed pro-inflammatory cytokines and anti-collagen antibodies, and mitigated cartilage destruction in the CIA mice. These results provide a rationale to further develop IG-19 as a therapeutic agent for chronic inflammatory arthritis. The advantage of HDP based therapy is the potential to control inflammation without compromising the patient’s ability to resolve infections. / May 2017

Background: When governments procure fighter jets from international suppliers, offsets frequently occur. In 2009, the European Commission issued Defence and Security Directive 2009/81/EC – a first step to incorporate the defence sector into the European single-market model. The regulation has changed the circumstances on the fighter market by limiting the use of offsets. Whether the fighter market, or the defence sector, is able to adjust to these changes remain unanswered.Purpose: The purpose of this study is to investigate and analyse the role of offsets in procurements of fighter jets, to get a better understanding of the present situation at the fighter market where the EU attempts to ban offset agreements.Research method: This study uses a qualitative method. Seven interviews with employees at Saab Aeronautics were carried through. In addition to the interviews, a literature study was conducted on defence markets, offsets and the European context. The gathered material was thereafter analysed with selected theories of institutional and transaction cost economics, as well as previous research in order to fulfil the purpose of the study.Conclusion: The study concludes that offsets can be seen as a by-product of the existing market imperfections and political transactions, and therefore a natural component in procurements of fighter jets. Certain forms of offset can be used by purchasing governments to neutralize existing market imperfections and lower the transaction costs. However, this is only one dimension to offsets since they may appear in several forms with different purposes and risks attached to them. The institutional change on the European fighter market will produce both winners and losers in the years to come. Whether eliminating offsets will lead to a more open and transparent fighter market remains ambiguous