Chapitre 5. Militarisation et arsenalisation de l'espace extra-atmosphérique : perspectives stratégiques et éthico-juridiques.

According to Carl Schmitt, the antonym of 'The ethics of mankind' contained in outer space law is nomos and polemos, ie the idea that (international) law and politics have as their respective nuclei the sharing of territory and a relation of hostility, both of which combine in conquest, in the sense of taking possession of a territory by the use of armed force. The big question is knowing if outer space escapes or will escape the nomos and polemos, or if it also experiences or will experience the struggle for domination. In order to answer this question, the article examines outer space law concerning the military; then 'the ethics of mankind' vis-à-vis nomos and polemos; finally the militarisation and arsenalisation of outer space, from the angle of anti-missile defences and the relationship to nuclear dissuasion, ie the essence of the problem of defence in outer space.

Mortality data in the age of drones ‡.

Mortality data plays an essential role in shaping humanitarian, legal and ethical responses to conflict situations. The rise of drone warfare poses new questions regarding the accuracy and reliability of mortality data in conflict. This article examines some of the methodological and political challenges to collecting mortality data in drone warfare, and how the way in which drones are framed in public discourse contributes to these challenges.

Learning to blast a way into crime, or just good clean fun? Examining aggressive play with toy weapons and its relation with crime.

BACKGROUND: Researchers, such as Bandura, have proposed that children's mere exposure to the use of play weapons encourages deviant displays of aggression, but there is very little research to support this hypothesis of 20 years. AIM: To examine the relationship between amount of weapon play and concurrent aggression as well as later violent juvenile crime, while controlling for other variables possibly influencing criminal pathways. METHOD: Using longitudinal survey data collected from mothers and children (n = 2019) from age 5, with follow-up at age 15, correlations between children's play with toy weapons and juvenile criminality were examined. Multivariate regression analyses were employed to determine to what extent early childhood aggression, symptoms of attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, and symptoms of depression were antecedents of juvenile crime. RESULTS: For bivariate analysis between toy weapon play and juvenile criminality, the effect size was small and not significant. The relationship remained not significant once control variables were introduced into the model. CONCLUSIONS AND IMPLICATIONS: The act of pretending to be aggressive in childhood thus plays little role in predicting later criminality after other factors, such as gender, attention deficit hyperactivity disorder or depression, have been taken into account. Involvement in imaginative play with toy gun use in early childhood is unlikely to be useful as a risk marker for later criminal behaviour. Play fighting and war toy games may even be considered necessary components within the frame of normal development. Copyright © 2018 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Medicalized weapons & modern war.

"Medicalized" weapons--those that rely on advances in neuroscience, physiology, and pharmacology--offer the prospect of reducing casualties and protecting civilians. They could be especially useful in modern asymmetric wars in which conventional states are pitted against guerrilla or insurgent forces. But may physicians and other medical workers participate in their development?

Proportionality, just war theory and weapons innovation.

Just wars are supposed to be proportional responses to aggression: the costs of war must not greatly exceed the benefits. This proportionality principle raises a corresponding 'interpretation problem': what are the costs and benefits of war, how are they to be determined, and a 'measurement problem': how are costs and benefits to be balanced? And it raises a problem about scope: how far into the future do the states of affairs to be measured stretch? It is argued here that weapons innovation always introduces costs, and that these costs cannot be determined in advance of going to war. Three examples, the atomic bomb, the AK-47 and the ancient Greek catapult, are given as examples. It is therefore argued that the proportionality principle is inapplicable prospectively. Some replies to the argument are discussed and rejected. Some more general defences of the proportionality principle are considered and also rejected. Finally, the significance of the argument for Just War Theory as a whole is discussed.