Genetic Seeds of Warfare

Genetic Seeds of Warfare PDF

Author: R. Paul Shaw

Publisher: Routledge

Published: 2020-12-22

Total Pages: 288

ISBN-13: 1000258955

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For millennia humanity has simultaneously deplored and waged war. With each conflict the stakes have risen, and we now face global annihilation for the sake of a practice all the world claims to condemn. Is there some seemingly irresistible force that impels us toward our own destruction? To explain this central paradox of human behaviour, Genetic Seeds of Warfare, originally published in 1989, advances a startling new theory. It traces the origins of warfare back to early groups of Homo sapiens in competition for scarce resources, showing that warfare evolved as these groups evolved: kin-group against kin-group; tribe against tribe; nation against nation. Rather than being tied to a specific gene, warfare emerged as one of many behavioural strategies for maximising genetic survival. As social groups became more complex, motivations for warfare developed from simple protection of blood relations to political appeals to shared ethnicity, religion, and national identity. But the ultimate cause of warfare is rooted in the most basic of human drives: the need to ensure that one’s genes will survive and reproduce. The authors challenge many assumptions about human behaviour in general, and warfare in particular. They convincingly present the case for an evolutionary understanding of the propensity for warfare, supporting their argument with data from a vast array of social and natural science research. In doing so, they reveal why previous attempts at ending war have failed, and make proactive suggestions toward the development of a new agenda for world peace.

The Sociology of War and Violence

The Sociology of War and Violence PDF

Author: Siniša Malešević

Publisher: Cambridge University Press

Published: 2010-06-10

Total Pages: 375

ISBN-13: 1139488597

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War is a highly complex and dynamic form of social conflict. This book demonstrates the importance of using sociological tools to understand the changing character of war and organised violence. The author offers an original analysis of the historical and contemporary impact that coercion and warfare have on the transformation of social life, and vice versa. Although war and violence were decisive components in the formation of modernity most analyses tend to shy away from the sociological study of the gory origins of contemporary social life. In contrast, this book brings the study of organised violence to the fore by providing a wide-ranging sociological analysis that links classical and contemporary theories with specific historical and geographical contexts. Topics covered include violence before modernity, warfare in the modern age, nationalism and war, war propaganda, battlefield solidarity, war and social stratification, gender and organised violence, and the new wars debate.

Seeds and Survival

Seeds and Survival PDF

Author: Paul Richards

Publisher:

Published: 1997-10-01

Total Pages: 61

ISBN-13: 9780788185984

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This report considers the impact of war, civil strife, and low-intensity conflict on plant genetic resource management, where crop plant genetic resources.

Seeds and Survival

Seeds and Survival PDF

Author: P. Richards

Publisher:

Published: 1997

Total Pages: 0

ISBN-13:

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This report considers the impact of war, civil strife, and low-intensity conflict on plant genetic resource management, where crop plant genetic resources.

Seed Wars

Seed Wars PDF

Author: Keith Aoki

Publisher:

Published: 2008

Total Pages: 0

ISBN-13: 9781594600500

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Seed Wars is a comprehensive overview of the current domestic and international legal controversies regarding intellectual property protections for plant genetic resources (PGRs) over the past three decades. This book examines these controversies on three fronts: (1) the rise of intellectual property protections for plant varieties and the enclosure of the "genetic" commons; (2) the subsequent move of the agro-chemical industry from manufacturing fertilizers, pesticides, and herbicides to "manufacturing" seeds in the context of industrial agriculture; and (3) the emergence of overlapping regimes of domestic and multilateral treaties such as the Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property (TRIPS, 1994), the Convention on Biodiversity (CBD, 1992) and the International Treaty on Plant Genetic Resources (ITPGR, 2004) from the 1990s on. Finally, this book speculates on possible directions that intellectual property protection for PGRs may take in the 21st century. While intellectual property protection for plants has been available in the United States since 1930, the decade of the 1960s saw the rise of Plant Variety Protections in Europe and by 1980, the U.S. Supreme Court embraced the idea that living organisms could be patented, paving the way for new plant varieties to receive utility patent protection in the U.S. "Seed Wars provides an excellent overview of the issues and suggests a range of options to overcome the ill effects of expanding intellectual property rights on access to plant genetic resources, seeds and plant varieties. Aoki does a nice job of drawing the linkage between IPRs and PGRs, without suggesting a return to the old Common Heritage system or arguing for a revision in the current IP regime." -- Law & Politics Book Review

The Morality of Nationalism

The Morality of Nationalism PDF

Author: Robert McKim

Publisher: Oxford University Press

Published: 1997-07-10

Total Pages: 384

ISBN-13: 0195355938

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The resurgence of nationalist sentiment in many parts of the world today, together with the erosion of national barriers through the continuing rapid expansion of globalizing technologies and economic structures, has made questions about nationalism more pressing than ever. Collecting new work by some of the leading moral and political thinkers of our time, including Jonathan Glover, Will Kymlicka, Avishai Margalit, Samuel Scheffler, Yael Tamir, Charles Taylor, and Michael Walzer, this important volume seeks to illuminate nationalism from a moral and evaluative perspective rather than to provide policy prescriptions or predictive analyses. With discussion of issues such as the ideal of national self- determination, the permissibility of secession, the legitimacy of international intervention, and tolerance between nations, The Morality of Nationalism contains both pro- and anti-nationalist argument and concentrates throughout on matters of deep ethical and political significance. To what extent should people be permitted to act on the basis of loyalty to those to whom they are specially related? Are there benign forms of nationalism? Should liberals repudiate nationalism? What value should we attach to cultural diversity? Provocative and timely, The Morality of Nationalism will interest a variety of readers, from political philosophers and

A Global History of Warfare and Technology

A Global History of Warfare and Technology PDF

Author: Kaushik Roy

Publisher: Springer Nature

Published: 2022-08-05

Total Pages: 196

ISBN-13: 9811934789

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This book addresses the global history of technology, warfare and state formation from the Stone Age to the Information Age. Using a combination of top-down and bottom-up methodologies, it examines both interstate and intrastate conflicts with a focus on Eurasian technology and warfare. It shows how human agency and structural factors have intertwined, creating a complex web of technology and warfare. It also explores the interplay between technological and non-technological factors to chart the evolution of warfare from its origins to the present day, arguing that the interactions between civilian and military sectors have shaped the use of technology in warfare. Given its scope and depth, it is a valuable resource for researchers in fields such as world history, history of science and technology, history of warfare and imperialism and international relations.

Plants Go to War

Plants Go to War PDF

Author: Judith Sumner

Publisher: McFarland

Published: 2019-05-30

Total Pages: 367

ISBN-13: 1476635404

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As the first botanical history of World War II, Plants Go to War examines military history from the perspective of plant science. From victory gardens to drugs, timber, rubber, and fibers, plants supplied materials with key roles in victory. Vegetables provided the wartime diet both in North America and Europe, where vitamin-rich carrots, cabbages, and potatoes nourished millions. Chicle and cacao provided the chewing gum and chocolate bars in military rations. In England and Germany, herbs replaced pharmaceutical drugs; feverbark was in demand to treat malaria, and penicillin culture used a growth medium made from corn. Rubber was needed for gas masks and barrage balloons, while cotton and hemp provided clothing, canvas, and rope. Timber was used to manufacture Mosquito bombers, and wood gasification and coal replaced petroleum in European vehicles. Lebensraum, the Nazi desire for agricultural land, drove Germans eastward; troops weaponized conifers with shell bursts that caused splintering. Ironically, the Nazis condemned non-native plants, but adopted useful Asian soybeans and Mediterranean herbs. Jungle warfare and camouflage required botanical knowledge, and survival manuals detailed edible plants on Pacific islands. Botanical gardens relocated valuable specimens to safe areas, and while remote locations provided opportunities for field botany, Trees surviving in Hiroshima and Nagasaki live as a symbol of rebirth after vast destruction.

The Lamb and the Tiger

The Lamb and the Tiger PDF

Author: Stanley R. Barrett

Publisher: University of Toronto Press

Published: 2018-01-01

Total Pages: 199

ISBN-13: 1487522630

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This book focuses on the broad implications of the transformation of Canada from a peacekeeping to a war-making nation during the Conservative Party's recent decade in power. Funds were poured into the Canadian Forces, and a newly militarized nation found itself entrenched in conflicts around the globe. For decades, Canada had played a leading role in UN peacekeeping, and when the Cold War ended, the prospect of international harmony was infectious. Yet in short order hostilities erupted in the failed states of Rwanda, Somalia, and the Balkans; terrorism - including 9/11 - raised its head; and Iraq and Afghanistan became war zones. In the face of these immense challenges, the UN was dismissed by its opponents as irrelevant. Structured around an anti-war perspective, The Lamb and the Tiger critically examines the ageless genetic and more recent cultural (civilizational) explanations of war, concluding with a close look at the impact of war and right-wing politics on women and Indigenous peoples. The Lamb and the Tiger encourages Canadians to think about what kind of military and what kind of country they really want.