SINCE THE 1990-1991 PERSIAN GULF WAR, THE IDEA that the health of military personnel returning from major deployments should be monitored proactively has been established. Major studies are under way on both sides of the Atlantic on the health of personnel deployed to Iraq. The research that has emerged so far on US veterans of Operation Iraqi Freedom indicates that there have indeed been many ...

Syria’s support of Iran in the Gulf War needs explanation, surprising as it has both Arabs and non-Arabs. That Syrian policy is not self-explanatory can be attributed to pre-existing expectations about inter-Arab relations, whereby Arab states would stand by each other whenever challenged by foreign powers, even if those powers happened to be Islamic states. Demonstrating Arab solidarity become...

It is unlikely that Gulf War veterans are suffering chronic effects from illnesses caused by chemical warfare nerve agent exposure. Extensive investigation and review by several expert panels have determined that no evidence exists that chemical warfare nerve agents were used during the Gulf War. At no time before, during, or after the war was there confirmation of symptoms among anyone, milita...

An exaggerated response to emotional stimuli is one of the several symptoms widely reported by veterans of the 1991 Persian Gulf War. Many have attributed these symptoms to post-war stress; others have attributed the symptoms to deployment-related exposures and associated damage to cholinergic, dopaminergic, and white matter systems. We collected event-related potential (ERP) data from 20 veter...

Gulf War-related illnesses are mostly common ailments, but with incidence rates that exceed those expected in the population of Gulf War veterans. These illnesses may be the result of combinations of chemical and physiological stressors which may have caused acute cellular effects sufficient to initiate processes of autoimmunity to various organs, tissues or types of cells. Two main suspects in...

BACKGROUND Complaints of poor memory and concentration are common in veterans of the 1991 Persian Gulf War as are other symptoms. Despite a large research effort, such symptoms remain largely unexplained. METHOD A comprehensive battery of neuropsychological tests and rating scales was administered to 341 UK servicemen who were returnees from the Gulf War and peace keeping duties in Bosnia, pl...

Service in the Persian Gulf in 1991 is associated with increased reporting of symptoms and distress in a proportion of those who served there. Yet despite clear evidence of an increase in symptom burden and a decrease in well being, exhaustive clinical and laboratory based scientific research has failed to document many reproducible biomedical abnormalities in this group. Likewise, there has be...

This paper discusses the enduring forces driving the global diffusion of military capability, whether during the cold war or other historical periods, and then considers the competitive dynamics characteristic of the superpower rivalry itself. I argue that the working of the so-called technological imperative along with loosely coupled action-reaction dynamics lead us to expect certain patterns...