‘War’ Archives
War Crimes in Angola
War Crimes in Angola Angola, a former Portuguese colony on the southwestern coast of Africa, is slowly recovering from decades of civil war that left over half a million dead and displaced at least 3.5 million people. The UN-brokered effort to disarm the combatants and return the refugees to their homes, while making some progress, has [...]
Arms Trafficking
Arms Trafficking Practically all of the bloodiest conflicts of recent years could not have taken place without a flourishing and generally uncontrolled trade in small arms. While the world’s attention is understandably riveted by the threat of nuclear, biological, or CHEMICAL WEAPONS—the WEAPONS OF MASS DESTRUCTION—it is the traffic in [...]
Agent Orange
Agent Orange A herbicide and defoliant used by US forces in Vietnam to remove leaves from trees that provided cover for North Vietnamese and Vietcong forces. Named for the orange stripe on the fifty-five-gallon drums in which it was stored, Agent Orange included traces of a dioxin, known to cause a variety of health problems and congenital [...]
Limited War
Limited War Limited war is defined as armed conflict that does not rise to the level of total or general war, involving the engagement of the military forces of two or more nations. A state may make it clear before a conflict begins that it intends to exercise restraint in the pursuit of its military objectives, whether by its actions or by a [...]
Rocky Flats
Rocky Flats Rocky Flats Nuclear Weapons Plant (Rocky Flats) in Jefferson County, Colorado, was a nuclear weapons production site. From 1952 to 1989, Rockwell International produced plutonium triggers for the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) for nuclear weapons. After its cleanup in 2006 (scheduled), the site will be designated a National [...]
Nuclear Arms and International Law
Nuclear Arms and International Law The legality of the use of nuclear arms remains in dispute. Several treaties, most of them dating back to the cold war, limit the production, stockpiling, and testing of nuclear 322 nuclear arms and international law weapons as well as their proliferation. In a 1997 advisory opinion, the INTERNATIONAL COURT OF [...]
Total War
Total War The phrase total war has at least three different meanings. In one construction, total war entails the state’s mobilization of all resources—political, military, and economic—to defeat an enemy. In a second interpretation, total war refers to the announced intent of a state to bring the conflict against the enemy to any part of [...]
Safe Havens
Safe Havens The term safe haven applies to an area that is designated off-limits for military targeting. The term does not have specific legal standing, but the Fourth Geneva Convention of 1949 concerning the Protection of Civilian Persons in Times of War and Additional Protocol I do provide for three types of protected areas: hospital zones, [...]
Germ Warfare
Germ Warfare Germ warfare, also known as biological warfare, is the use of pathogens (disease-causing agents) to terrorize a civilian population or obtain military advantage. The use of BIOLOGICAL WEAPONS is banned under international law. (Pathogenic agents are classified as unconventional weapons, a designation that also includes chemical [...]
Mercenaries
Mercenaries Mercenaries are soldiers who receive pay for their services, especially as distinguished from soldiers who owe military service to their nation. Historically, mercenaries were often foreigners, rather than citizens or even residents of the nation for which they fought, and the name has now come to mean only foreign auxiliaries. In [...]
