Wastewater from the manufacture of propellants typically contains 2,4-dinitrotoluene (DNT), a suspected animal carcinogen. Previous studies have indicated that DNT is aerobically biodegradable. However, inconsistent removal of DNT during aerobic treatment has been observed at a munitions wastewater treatment plant, necessitating the use of activated carbon pre-treatment. The objective of this study was to evaluate the effect of nutrient and cosubstrate amendments on the rate and extent of DNT removal. Addition of ethanol (100-500 mg/l) and phosphate (0.8-3.3 mg/l) significantly accelerated the rate of aerobic DNT (0.3-5.6 mg/l) biodegradation. Addition of phosphate alone also increased the rate of DNT degradation, but to a lesser degree. The presence of ethyl ether, another substrate commonly found in munitions plant wastewater, had comparatively little effect on the rate of DNT removal. Interruptions in the DNT manufacturing process can result in DNT being absent from the munitions plant wastewater for extended periods. The effect of such interruptions was evaluated in semi-continuously operated reactors, fed daily with phosphate-amended wastewater, at a hydraulic residence time of 3 days. DNT removal resumed without a lag even after it was absent from the feed for periods up to 15 days. During aerobic biodegradation of DNT, reduction to 4-amino-2-nitrotoluene and 2-amino-4-nitrotoluene was consistently observed, with reduction at the para position predominating. The highest level of aminonitrotoluene formation was 23% of the total DNT degraded. Aminonitrotoluene isomers were consumed shortly after they formed in the semi-continuously operated reactors, confirming the potential for degradation of these metabolites. Although the aminonitrotoluene isomers are not currently regulated, their presence in treated munitions wastewater is a concern due to possible toxicity. / Master of Science

This thesis examines the evolution of international humanitarian concern culminating in adoption of a Convention on Cluster Munitions (CCM) banning these weapons in May 2008. It is based on systematic analysis of official documents, extensive interviews, participant-observation, and several bodies of international relations (IR) theory. Part I explains the research methodology and discusses the theoretical context for the thesis. It is argued that several core assumptions of rationalist-materialist approaches to IR theory impede understanding of the CCM¿s emergence, and thus the thesis adopts an interpretivist framework. The four chapters of Part II analyse international efforts on cluster munitions including prior, failed attempts to restrict cluster munitions, the emergence of an international campaign from 2003, ensuing activity involving states, international organisations and civil society, and the CCM¿s eventual negotiation involving more than 100 states. Part III marries this empirical account to theoretical analysis of four thesis propositions. It is concluded that non-state actor-engendered processes of evidence collection and analysis, learning and frame alignment were central to the Oslo process¿s emergence. The Oslo Declaration¿s particular humanitarian framing (to ban cluster munitions causing unacceptable harm to civilians) and the structure of the subsequent ¿define-and-ban¿ discourse permitted convergence between states over prohibiting these weapons. Nevertheless, they contain implications for other international efforts aimed at controlling means of armed violence.

No / This article undertakes a critical analysis of what have been labelled humanitarian arms control (HAC) initiatives, most notably, recent agreements to ban cluster munitions and landmines as well as efforts to restrict the proliferation of small arms. The article critiques conventional accounts that view such initiatives as illustrating the potential of global civil society to interject human security concerns into the domain of arms regulation through the exercise of bottom-up power. In order to do this, the article first outlines the concept of securitization, particularly Floyd's discussion of positive and negative forms of securitization and Abrahamson's concept of the security continuum. This is used to frame an analysis of contemporary HAC initiatives that locates them in the much longer history of pariah weapons regulation and the way it relates both to the framing of legitimized weapons and changes in the broader regulation of the conventional defence trade in different eras. In contrast to conventional accounts of the HAC agenda, it is argued that initiatives such as those on landmines and cluster munitions were successful precisely because they were consonant with the same discourse used to legitimize both post-Cold War liberal interventionism and the new generation modern high-tech weapons. Moreover, the extra-securitization of landmines, cluster munitions and small arms has been accompanied by the (relative) desecuritization of the trade in major conventional weapons and associated dual-use technologies, a process that has a number of quite negative effects in terms of arms trade regulation. The article concludes by reflecting on the implications of the preceding analysis both for thinking about processes of securitization and for arms trade non-governmental organizations (NGOs).

No / A major original research project, commissioned by France (Ministry of Defence), to contribute to an EU (and also an international), policy process to prevent and combat illegal SALW transfers during transit. Greene was co-director and a core researcher for this project, playing a leading role in its design, field work, and analysis. Involved substantial interviews and engagement with EU and Eastern European governments, customs, air transport control and other authorities; presented at a cross-governmental workshop for the French Government and for European Commission, and extensively used in the subsequent policy process.

The Senate Munitions Committee of 1934-1936, chaired by Gerald Nye of North Dakota, provided the first critical examination of America's modern military establishment. The committee approached its task guided by the optimism of the progressive Social Gospel and the idealism of earlier times, but in the middle of the munitions inquiry the nation turned to new values represented in Reinhold Niebuhr's realism and Franklin D. Roosevelt's Second New Deal. By 1936, the committee found its views out of place in a nation pursuing a new course and in a world threatening to break out in war. Realist historians writing in the cold war period (1945-1990) closely linked the munitions inquiry to isolationism and created a one-dimensional history in which the committee chased evil "merchants of death." The only book-length study of the munitions investigation, John Wiltz's In Search of Peace, published in 1963, provided a realist interpretation. The munitions inquiry went beyond the merchants of death in its analysis of the post-World War I American military establishment. A better understanding emerges when the investigation is considered not only within an isolationist framework, but also as part of the intellectual, cultural, and political history of the interwar years. In particular, Franklin Roosevelt's political use of the investigation becomes apparent. Sources used include the committee's hearings, exhibits, and reports, the Gerald Nye Papers, the Franklin Roosevelt Papers, the Cordell Hull Papers, the R. Walton Moore Papers, the Henry Stimson Papers, the Homer Cummings Diaries, and the State Department's decimal files.

No description available.

No description available.

Abiotic transformation of compounds in the natural environment by metal oxides plays a significant a role in contaminant fate and behavior in soil. The ability of birnessite, ferrihydrite and green rust to abiotically transform insensitive munitions compounds (IMCs) parent (2,4 dinitroanisole [DNAN] and 3-nitro-1,2,4-triazol-5-one [NTO]), and daughter products (2-methoxy-5-nitro aniline [MENA], 2,4-diaminoanisole [DAAN]of DNAN; and 5-amino-1, 2, 4-triazol-3-one [ATO] of NTO) was studied in batch reactors under strictly controlled pH and ionic strength. The objectives of the study were to (i) assess the abiotic transformation potential of soluble DNAN, MENA, DAAN, NTO and ATO by birnessite, ferrihydrite and green rust, and (ii) identify inorganic reaction products. The study was carried out at metal oxide solid to IMC solution ratios (SSR) of 0.15, 1.5 and 15 g kg⁻¹ for birnessite and ferrihydrite and 10 g kg⁻¹ for green rust. Aqueous samples were collected at time intervals between 0 to 3 days after the reaction initiation and analyzed using HPLC with UV detection. Results indicated that DNAN was resistant to oxidation by birnessite and ferrihydrite at given solid to solution ratios. MENA was susceptible to rapid oxidation by birnessite (first order rate constant, 𝑘=1.36 h⁻¹ at 15 g kg⁻¹ SSR). The nitro groups from MENA largely mineralized to nitrite (NO₂⁻). In contrast, ferrihydrite did not oxidize MENA. DAAN was susceptible to oxidation by both birnessite and ferrihydrite, but about a six times higher oxidation rate was observed with birnessite (𝑘=1.18 h⁻¹) as compared to ferrihydrite (𝑘=0.22 h⁻¹) at an SSR of 1.5 g kg⁻¹. There was a complete loss of DAAN from solution after 5 min with birnessite at an SSR 15 g kg⁻¹ (𝑘≥90.5 h⁻¹). CO₂ evolution experiments indicate mineralization of 15 and 12 % of carbon associated with MENA and DAAN, respectively; under aerobic conditions with birnessite at an SSR of 15 g kg⁻¹. NTO was resistant to oxidation by birnessite and ferrihydrite at any SSR; however, there was slight initial loss from solution upon reaction with ferrihydrite at 0.15 and 1.5 g kg⁻¹ SSR and complete loss at 15 g kg⁻¹ SSR due to adsorption. ATO was susceptible to oxidation by birnessite and sorption by ferrihydrite. The first order rate constants (𝑘) for ATO with birnessite at 0.15 and 1.5 g kg⁻¹ SSR are 0.04 and 3.03 h⁻¹ respectively. There was complete loss of ATO from solution with birnessite at 15 g kg⁻¹ SSR (𝑘 ≥ 90.2 h⁻¹) within 5 min of reaction. Transformation products analysis revealed urea, CO₂ and N₂ as major reaction products with 44 % urea recovery and recovery of 51.5 % of ATO carbon as CO₂ and 47.8 % of ATO nitrogen as N₂ at 15 g kg⁻¹ SSR. The oxidation of ATO in the presence of birnessite was found to be independent of dissolved O₂. The results indicate that ATO, the major reductive (bio)transformation product of NTO, is readily oxidized by birnessite in soil. NTO was found strongly sorbed to ferrihydrite as compared to that of ATO. The results of the green rust experiment indicate rapid abiotic reduction of parent compounds NTO and DNAN to their reduced aminated daughter products. NTO was generally reductively transformed to 5-amino-1, 2, 4-triazol-3-one (ATO) within 10 min and completely reacted in 20 min. DNAN was rapidly transformed to its reduced daughter products MENA and 4-methoxy-5-nitroaniline (iMENA). The reduction occurred with a distinctive, staggered regioselectivity. Over the first 10 min, the para-nitro group of DNAN was selectively reduced, generating iMENA. Thereafter the ortho-nitro group was preferentially reduced, generating MENA. Both iMENA and MENA were subsequently transformed to the final reduction product DAAN within 1 day. X-ray absorption near edge spectroscopy data suggested oxidative transformation of green rust to lepidocrocite-like mineral forms, accounting for 94 % of the mineral products in the case of NTO reaction as compared to 62 % in the case of DNAN. The results taken as whole suggest that complete abiotic transformation of IMCs could be achieved by coupled stepwise green rust and birnessite treatments.

L’industrie chimique française est une industrie qui apparait alanguie au début du siècle et distancée par l’Allemagne. Elle connait cependant une croissance, plus lente, et un certain nombre de transformations notamment au point de vue de la recherche. Elle croît à l’ombre d’un système d’ententes généralisée et du dur labeur des ouvriers. Quand la guerre éclate en 1914, elle est mal préparée et doit effectuer une transformation rapide. Sa montée en puissance se fait grâce à un effort d’outillage et un développement du travail intensif où les travailleurs coloniaux paie un cher prix. Les approvisionnements anglais et américains sont essentiels pour sa production. La guerre terminée l’industrie chimique française doit se reconvertir. Elle pense, avec l’aide des pouvoirs publics, le faire grâce au Traité de Versailles. Cependant la crise de 1920-1921 montre les fragilités de cette industrie. Le retour à la croissance entre 1922 et 1929 s’accompagne à partir de 1925 d’une concurrence accrue de la part de l’Allemagne qui a rationnalisé ses structures. La croissance se fait principalement sur le marché national. En fin de période, la recherche scientifique commence à s’organiser au sein des entreprises. Toutefois la transformation capitalistique c’est imparfaitement faite. Le secteur reste dispersé et continue d’employer une forte main d’œuvre immigrée, seule capable d’accepter les tâches les plus dures. / The French Chemical industry appears in the beginning of the century as a backward industry compared with the german one. Indeed there is a slow growth and a a certain number of progress, in research for instance. The Chemical Industry is structured by a general system of cartels and harsh labour. At the outbreak of the War, the French Chemical industry is ill prepared and has to shift rapidly. It’s improvment is made through the basic development of traditionnal factories and an intensification of work due to colonial workforce for the most. At the end of the war, the chemical industry as to convert to civil markets. The 1920-1921 crisis shows the fragility of this industry. When the economic growth is back in 1922-29 the German chemical is more competitive thane ever having rationalized its structures. Thus the inner market is developped. At the end of the period, scientific research is rising. Nevertheless the capitalistic transformation is far for being made. The branch is still divided in archaïc (foreign workforce) and modern trends.

Johan A. Warden tog fram sin modell om motståndaren som ett system för att genom denna hitta dess svagheter. Modellen visade sig vara mycket användbar inom mellanstatliga konflikter och var mycket effektiv vid planerandet och genomförandet av USA:s offensiv mot Irak under inledningen av Gulfkriget. Men kopplat mot irreguljära konflikter har Wardens modell stött på mycket kritik då den anses spelat ut sin roll och därför inte längre kan anses applicerbar vid planerandet av luftoperationer inom denna typ av krigföring. Denna uppsats skall se om det är precisionsvapen och användandet av dessa som räddar kvar Warden inom planeringen av luftoperationer inom irreguljär krigföring. / John A. Warden developed the Five ring model and the enemy as a system. These models where used as a tool to find the enemies weak points. These models proved useful in a conventional conflict, and where very effective during the planning and execution of Operation Desert Storm. In recent times Wardens theories has been a subject of a debate, stating that they have played out there role as an effect of irregular warfare. This essay is going to try to see if it is precision-guided munitions that save Wardens theories in the fields of modern air-warfare planning in irregular warfare.