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Military emerging disruptive technologies (EDTs) have a rapid and major effect on technologies that already exist and disrupt or overturn traditional practices and may revolutionize governmental structures, economies and international security. Margaret Kosal finds that military applications of EDT have even greater potential than nuclear weapons to radically change the balance of power.[1] The debate, stimulated by the Group of Governmental Experts on emerging technologies in the area of lethal autonomous weapons systems (GGE on LAWS) established by the Convention on Prohibitions or Restrictions on the Use of Certain Conventional Weapons (CCW), has focused on artificial intelligence, cyber weapons and drones.[2] A broader discussion should include all military EDTs, inter alia: space and hypersonic weapons; directed-energy weapons/laser and photonic weapons, just to name a few. Though leaders have begun to become aware of legal and ethical implications of the military use of EDTs, these issues remain in the background: security concerns are of pivotal importance[3] and a most of the information and documents are kept confidential and their circulation is restricted.[4] This paper aims to investigate the compliance of military EDTs with international law, international humanitarian law, international human rights law and with ethical principles. [1] Kosal M.E. (ed.) (2019). Disruptive and Game Changing Technologies in Modern Warfare. Springer. [2] Brehm M (2017). Defending the Boundary – Constraints and Requirements on the Use of Autonomous Weapon Systems under International Humanitarian and Human Rights Law. The Geneva Academy of International Humanitarian Law and Human Rights, Academy, Briefing No. 9; Jiménez-Segovia R (2019). Autonomous weapon systems in the Convention on certain conventional weapons: Legal and ethical shadows of an autonomy, under human control? REEI, 37, 1–33; Armin K (2009). Killer robots: Legality and ethicality of autonomous weapons. Ashgate. [3] National Security Commission on ...

Space is governed by bilateral treaties that belong to the Cold War era. The withdrawal by the Trump Administration from two major treaties such as the Intermediate-range Nuclear Forces and Open Skies , blaming Russia for the decision, jeopardizes the space neutrality. U.S. President Biden took the decision to seek a five-year extension of New START, until Feb. 5, 2026, and Russia agreed. Nevertheless, the unilateral withdrawal from the Outer Space Treaty by one of the major space powers is likely. Space control is essential, given the heavy reliance on space systems and the rapidly increasing proliferation of missile technology and counterspace systems. Emerging disruptive technologies are game-changing and will determine the conflicts and the geopolitical scenario of next decades. Hypersonic weapons are changing the character of war, will play a huge role in the global power balance by undermining core pillars of geopolitics such as geography and technological power. Like a time machine, global defense and security concerns take us back to the time of the Strategic Defense Initiative - known as "Star Wars Program" - the satellites and space-based missile system established by the U.S. on the eve of the end of the Cold War, intended to protect the country from attack by Soviet ballistic strategic nuclear weapons. This missile shield programme was designed to render nuclear weapons obsolete, but it appears to have failed. Space has been elevated by the U.S. and NATO to warfighting domain and has already been militarized by Russia and raising China. So far, the international community failed to reach a solution to prevent an arms race in outer space. Space war is no more a science-fiction scenario; it's an emerging reality. This presentation aims to shed light on the hazard of an outer space which is not governed by any rules and tackles the challenges coming from the militarization of this operational domain. The question is how to avoid a star war in Outer Space and to prevent a conflict on Earth from the ...

This paper aims to shed light on the right to information and the freedom of the media in the context of the COVID-19 outbreak. Infection disease outbreaks are invariably characterized by myths and rumors, boosted by social media accounts, that media often pick up and circulate. Under the justification to avoid panic and confusion, and to combat "fake news" during the COVID-9 pandemic, some governments took emergency measures that curtail the freedom of information. The lack of a legal definition of the term "fake news" leaves room for arbitrary and broad interpretations. Decrees issued during the state of emergency – including the practice of detaining journalists for their work and the abuse of pre-trial detention and Internet censorship – sound like measures adopted to restrict the freedom of expression and the freedom of the media, and to shout down dissenting voices. Any kind of pressure against journalists has an immediate consequence, not only on them but also on the public's right to be informed. Media play a key role in providing important information to the public, and a pluralistic and vibrant media landscape is indispensable to any democratic society. Access to information and a free working environment are therefore essential and need to be ensured at all times, even under state of emergency. Authorities cannot invoke the state of emergency or national security as a motivation to suspend or limit fundamental human rights. The fight against COVID-19 can be a pretext for restricting civil liberties. ; Paper presented in joint session JS RN16- RN32: Subnational level perspectives on the governance of the pandemic at the 15th Conference of the European Sociological Association 2021 (ESA Conference 2021), Wednesday, 1 Sept. 2021: 12:30pm - 2:00pm CEST. Session Chair: Louisa Parks, University of Trento. This study was supported by the European Social Fund (FSE) and by the Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia (FCT) under research grant No. SFRH/BD/136170/2018. The participation in this conference was ...

Presentation on "Conflict and International Relations: The Impact of Terrorism and Extremism on the Middle Eastern International Politics Agenda" as invited speaker in the Middle East session, 14 April 2021, at the congress "Beyond the West: Politics of the Global South" organized by the Political Science and International Relations Studies Association (NECPRI) and held online 12-14 April 2021. ; Participation as invited speaker at the congress "Beyond the West: Politics of the Global South" organized by the Political Science and International Relations Studies Association (NECPRI) of NOVA School of Social Sciences and Humanities (NOVA FCSH), held online on 12-15 April 2021 in Lisbon, Portugal. The author gratefully acknowledges the European Social Fund (ESF) and the Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia (FCT), Portugal, for supporting this study through grant SFRH/BD/136170/2018.

Threats from Africa undermine the security of Europe. The European Union and NATO have 21 member countries in common, namely most of EU member states. The fundamental role of the Atlantic Alliance is to safeguard the freedom and security of its member countries by political and military means. Since the fall of the Berlin Wall, non-state actors and hybrid threats emerged as the major challenges to international security. NATO is evolving in response to new strategic reality, and terrorism and weak states are among the most pressing challenges the Alliance faces. NATO is playing an increasingly important role in crisis management and peacekeeping. Since the African Union was established in 2001 as the successor to the Organization of African Unity, it faces difficulties in achieving the African ownership in peace and security. The chronic lack of funding and of appropriate military resources, makes the African Union depending on external aid – NATO provides military support, while the EU provides money. NATO cooperates with the AU since 2005, and all NATO-AU activities are coordinated with the EU. The NATO-EU partnership is complementar and mutual, and is based on common values and strategic interests, and should be strengthened to secure the European southern border, and to guarantee security in the Mediterranean region. Therefore, stronger and permanent NATO-EU partnership in Africa would be desirable. This brief paper investigates the ties between these three organizations, and suggests some recommendations to improve the 'trilateral' relationship to ensure security to their member states. ; Presentation at the international online conference Thinking the European Security and Defense Identity, hosted by the Portuguese Military University Institute (IUM) on 6 May 2021. The author gratefully acknowledges the European Social Fund (ESF) and the Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia (FCT), Portugal, for supporting this work through grant SFRH/BD/136170/2018.

This poster addresses the employment of the Armed Forces in homeland security tasks. Unconventional conflicts – hybrid, asymmetric, and transnational conflicts which involve state and non-state actors such as insurgents or terrorist organizations – are among the trend topics of defense and security. Since jihadist terrorism broke out in in Europe, security has become a main concern, occupying the front pages of newspapers and the agendas of governments. Therefore, the debate on the employment of the Armed Forces in homeland security tasks became central. The primary responsibility for protecting life and property and maintaining law and order in the civilian community is vested in police forces; supplementary responsibility is vested by statute in specific agencies other than the Ministry of Defense. Military forces may be used to support law enforcement agencies. In emergency situations, the Parliament may authorize the use of the military as a police force on home soil. Police departments are much larger in major metropolitan areas and much smaller than the average in rural areas, but in catastrophic attacks that affect large areas in several states simultaneously, there will not be enough police officers to do what has to be done. Since lateral reinforcement is not feasible when all adjacent areas are involved, the only source of augmentation for local departments will be from the Armed Forces. Subsidiary operations of the Amy in support to civil authorities – e.g. military aid in the event of a catastrophe – are one of the ordinary duties of the Army, whose main mission is to ensure security and defense of the territory. Although the readiness of use for the defense of the territory is reduced, the maintenance and development of this important primary mission is to guard the long-term, in anticipation of events imponderables in the military and security policy. In Western liberal-democracies the executive power is limited in the use of the military in domestic security operations because of legal norms. ...

The Helsinki Final Act of 1975, that concluded the first Conference on Security and Cooperation in Europe, reaffirmed the fundamental principle of renouncing the threat or use of force against the territorial integrity or political independence of any state. Through this agreement, the Soviet Union gained the implicit recognition of the 'sphere of influence' that was determined in Eastern Europe after the end of World War II. After the collapse of the Soviet Union, a series of conflicts arose between the Russian Federation and its neighbors, some of which are members of the European Union or participate in the European Neighbourhood Policy. Some of these conflicts were fought at the kinetic level, some otherthrough the resort to hybrid warfare, a blend of traditional and irregular tactics that makes overt and covert use of a wide range of tools: military and civilian, conventional and unconventional, including information and influence operations. This paper aims to investigate the hybrid warfare strategy carried out by the Russian Federation in the confrontation with the European Union to regain dominance in its contested neighbourhood: the Baltic states (Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania), Ukraine (Crimea and Donbass, i.e. Donetsk and Luhansk People's Republics), Georgia (South Ossetia and Abkhazia) and Moldova (Transnistria). ; This study was supported by the European Social Fund (FSE) and by the Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia (FCT) under research grant No. SFRH/BD/136170/2018.

War and politics are closely interrelated. If it is assumed, as in the case of Clausewitz's famous principle, that "war is a mere continuation of policy by other means. is not merely a political act, but also a truly political instrument, a continuation of political commerce, a carrying out of the same by other means" (Von Clausewitz, 1976), then it should be acknowledged that war is a political act. But Foucault inverts Clausewitz's traditional conception of war and says that politics is the continuation of war by other means (Foucault, 2006: 165). Here the emphasis of the discussion on war moves on politics. So, how to limit conflict within the political arena? The question shifts from the concept of armed conflict (i.e., war) to that of political conflict, in which nations confront against each other with alternate means such assanctions, coercive diplomatic efforts, economic warfare, or as prelude to war (Carisch et al., 2017). ; Political Reflection, 7 (2), Issue 27 (April-May-June 2021). The author gratefully acknowledges the European Social Fund (ESF) and the Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia (FCT), Portugal, for supporting this work through grant SFRH/BD/136170/2018.

The nature of conflict has changed dramatically over the last few decades. Hybrid warfare — also known as grey zone conflict or low-intensity conflict — is a reality and political and military leaders must be ready to confront and deter it. Hybrid warfare is the effort to achieve strategic objectives without using significant force. There is no common definition of the term and therefore it is correspondingly ambiguous. It is an amorphous definition for an amorphous strategy. While it is a blend of traditional and irregular tactics, hybrid warfare makes overt and covert use of a wide range of tools: military and civilian, conventional and unconventional. However, the term is so broad that it includes a set of tactics, techniques, technologies and methods. Hybrid warfare is an umbrella concept that can include, inter alia, information and disinformation operations, deception, troop movements, cyberattacks, sabotage and other non-military tactics or a combination of all these means. It can also include actual force. Hybrid warfare can be considered a form of comprehensive warfare, a strategy, not merely a set of tactics and techniques. This array of military activities may fall under the broad definition of hybrid warfare, that is not new, but is boosted by technological advance. Furthermore, hybrid warfare is low risk, low cost and provides an adversary the opportunity to cloud, throwing doubt on who is responsible for these "gray zone" actions. Hybrid warfare operations, for which it is difficult to attribute responsibility and which are not specifically regulated by international law, fall below the threshold of armed conflict and are convenient to be used to destabilize a government or to try to legitimize (unlawful) actions. Covert operations and support to proxies, such as independentists and secessionists, are facilitated by the nature of hybrid warfare. Hybrid warfare blurs the lines between peace and war and is therefore questioned whether it should be considered below the threshold of armed conflict. ...

In the intentions of the authors, Small Wars, Big Data, is aimed to address the complex issue of civil or intrastate wars and their impact on civilians. This is certainly a topical issue, and it will be a key topic in the coming years, given the spreading of unconventional conflicts. Ongoing conflicts in Syria, Yemen and Afghanistan, addressed in the chapters of this book, show how the boundary between international and non-international conflicts became blurred after the Second World War. The impact of conflicts on the civil population is the authors' greatest concern. Civilians have always been the innocent victims of every war, but, although protected by the Geneva Conventions, they have become the subject of indiscriminate attacks since 1945 (e.g. the allied bombing of Dresden, Hiroshima and Nagasaki). At the core of this work, there is the change in the type of warfare. It is a thorny issue, which would require a discussion of what is meant by terrorism and whether and when guerrilla warfare is to be considered a legitimate tactic by insurgents – guerrilla was categorized as "terrorism" from a certain point in time. Today everything from political opponents to hybrid conflicts and even organized crime is "terrorism". Originally, terrorism was an offshoot guerrilla military tactic employed by resistance groups. Early examples of insurgencies and guerrilla warfare can be traced back to the Túpac Amaru indigenous uprising in highland Peru against Spanish control in the 1780s and in the Caste War in the Yucatán peninsula of Mexico in the 1840s and 1850s (Castro, 1999). From the fifties onwards, in the aftermath of the Cuban Revolution, insurgency in Latin America was grounded on Marxist-Leninist ideology, and characterized by the use of a variety of violent and nonviolent tactics, including terror, to overthrow governments with guerrilla warfare (Debray, 1967). This phenomenon, previously classified as "insurgency" and/or "guerrilla", was then rebranded "terrorism". The meaning of terrorism has changed over ...

Threats from Africa undermine the security of Europe. The European Union and NATO have 22 member countries in common, namely most of EU member states. The fundamental role of the Atlantic Alliance is to safeguard the freedom and security of its member countries by political and military means. Since the fall of the Berlin Wall, non-state actors and hybrid threats emerged as the major challenges to international security. NATO is evolving in response to new strategic reality, and terrorism and weak states are among the most pressing challenges the Alliance faces. NATO is playing an increasingly important role in crisis management and peacekeeping. Since the African Union was established in 2001 as the successor to the Organization of African Unity, it faces difficulties in achieving the African ownership in peace and security. The chronic lack of funding and of appropriate military resources, makes the African Union depending on external aid – NATO provides military support, while the EU provides money. NATO cooperates with the AU since 2005, and all NATO-AU activities are coordinated with the EU. The NATO-EU partnership is complementar and mutual, and is based on common values and strategic interests, and should be strengthened to secure the European southern border, and to guarantee security in the Mediterranean region. Therefore, stronger and permanent NATO-EU partnership in Africa would be desirable. This brief paper investigates the ties between these three organizations, and suggests some recommendations to improve the 'trilateral' relationship to ensure security to their member states. ; Paper presented at the Breakout session IEP Research Center (CIEP), of the Estoril Political Forum 2019 – 27th International Meeting in Political Studies: "The Transatlantic Alliance: 70 Years After the Foundation of NATO, 30 Years After the Fall of the Berlin Wall", held at Hotel Palácio, Estoril, June 24-26, 2019. The author gratefully acknowledges the European Social Fund (ESF) and the Fundação para a Ciência e a ...

This brief study focuses on skin as sensory interface, and explores the latest discoveries in bioelectronic science. The work analyzes at what extent invisibility is possible by emulating nature, and if military applications can really benefit from technology that combines epidermal systems and virtual reality. The study shows that, to be effective, camouflage needs to match the environment — and to be disruptive. Adaptive and epidermal VR joint together can be a on the edge technology that might find effective military applications. ; Abstract presented at AuxDefense 2020, the Opening Session, 8 July 2020, h. 10:20. Full paper will be published in Key Engineering Materials. This work received financial support by the European Social Fund (ESF) and by the Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia (FCT), Portugal, under research grant SFRH/BD/136170/2018.

Is it reasonable to label State institutions as a "terrorist organizations"? This study is aimed to establish if a political party represented in a national parliament – or even a State or a Government as a whole – can be considered a "terror organization", and therefore proscribed as such. Through the analysis of some cases stories, this research assesses the legitimacy – or the lawfulness – of some political institutions in the Middle East. The essay scrutinizes, inter alia, the case of Hezbollah ("Party of Allah" or "Party of God"), a radical Islamic Shiite organization based in Lebanon, and the Islamic Resistance Movement (Hamas), a Sunni movement based in Gaza, both backed by the Government of Tehran – Iran as a whole is also taken into account. To have a broader framework in the region, this analysis touches also on: Turkey, Syria, Saudi Arabia, Qatar, and Afghanistan under Taliban rule. ; This study was supported by the European Social Fund (FSE) and by the Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia (FCT), Portugal, under research grant No. SFRH/BD/136170/2018. The participation in this conference was possible thanks to the funding by the Military Academy Research Center (CINAMIL), Portuguese Army, Ministry of National Defence (MDN), Portugal

The Charter of the Nürnberg Tribunal introduced crimes against peace and crimes against humanity into international criminal law. War crimes, that include grave breaches of the Geneva Conventions and other serious violations of laws and customs applicable in armed conflict, were included upon proposal by the United States in the Rome Statute that establishes the International Criminal Court (ICC). The ICC goes beyond the limits of multilateral international criminal justice which has been applied to the Nuremberg Trials. The Rome treaty, which essentially codifies customary jus cogens war crimes, allows the ICC to exercise jurisdiction over the nationals of non-party countries if the crime is committed in the territory of a party country. The U.S., which inspired the ICC, signed but not ratified the Rome Statute, and therefore has no legal obligations arising from such signature. Since 1998, the U.S. has declined to join the ICC because its broad powers could pursue "politically motivated prosecutions of Americans", thus posing a threat to U.S. sovereignty. When in January 2015, after the State of Palestine accessed the Rome Statute, the ICC opened an investigation for alleged war crimes committed by Israel – which is not a member of ICC – the U.S. sided with the government of Tel Aviv and began undermining the credibility of the Court. In October 2016 South Africa, Burundi and The Gambia withdrew from the ICC, accusing it to be an instrument of political pressure of Western powers. When, in November 2017, the Court's Office of the Prosecutor opened an investigation on alleged crimes committed in Afghanistan by U.S. military and civilian personnel, the U.S. stepped up efforts to de-legitimize the ICC. The U.S. stated that it wants to continue to exercise domestic jurisdiction over its nationals charged by the ICC for war crimes, thus removing them from international justice. In this way, we will return to a multilateral justice, or to the law of the strongest. Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice ...

History of International Relations at a Glance: 1) Westphalian Sovereignty Result of: Thirty Year's War (1618-1648) Catholic states v. Protestant states in western and central Europe Based on: Peace of Westphalia (Treaties of Osnabruck and Munster). 2) Concert of Europe (Vienna System) Result of: Napoleonic Wars (1799-1815). Based on: Congress of Vienna (1815). 3) Versailles-Washington System Result of: World War I (1914-1918). Based on: Peace Treaty of Versailles (1919) and Washington Naval Conference (1921-1922). 4) Yalta-Potsdam World Order Result of: World War II (1939-1945). Based on: Yalta Conference (February 1945) and Potsdam Conference (July-August 1945). 5) Modern System of International Relations Result of: Cold War's end and dissolution of USSR and Warsaw Pact (1991). ; This poster was supported by the European Social Fund (FSE) and by the Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia (FCT), Portugal, under research grant No. SFRH/BD/136170/2018. Poster available at https://www.encontrociencia.pt/posters/20744_20201102172422_EncontroCiencia2020_Marco_Marsili_ePoster.pdf