One of the most serious threats to the development of the learning object economy as described by Downes (2002) is the consistent campaign by the controllers of copyright to undermine, and render inoperable, the public domain. The learning object economy is the system of learning object repositories, distribution systems and rights’ management that is currently being developed by a wide variety...

Attacks by drones (i.e., unmanned combat air vehicles) continue to generate heated political and ethical debates. Here we examine the quantitative nature of drone attacks, focusing on how their intensity and frequency compare with that of other forms of human conflict. Instead of the power-law distribution found recently for insurgent and terrorist attacks, the severity of attacks is more akin ...

Although the last of the civil wars that plagued Central America during the 1970s and 1980s was formally brought to an end in 1996, violence has continued to affect the region unabated into the 21 century. It has been widely contended, however, that there has been a fundamental shift in the political economy of this brutality, which according to various commentators now occurs predominantly in ...

The effects of economic development are enormously important in understanding the causes of civil war and the requirements for successful post-conflict reconstruction. In recent decades we have seen an increase in the number of civil wars because of a phenomenon known as the conflict trap. I question why we see an increase in civil wars and what role unstable economic development plays in contr...

The cumulative strain of 14 years of war on service members, veterans, and their families, together with continuing global threats and the unique stresses of military service, are likely to be felt for years to come. Scientific as well as political factors have influenced how the military has addressed the mental health needs resulting from these wars. Two important differences between mental h...

In Late Antiquity Arabia, under the Byzantine and Sassanid states, there are many decentralized nomadic or sedentary tribal political structures in addition to centralized organizations. There constant conflicts wars between tribes. reasons for their such as booty, blood feud, revenge, border violations. All these relative multiplicity of show that inter-tribal a form life pre-Islamic period. T...