The various stages in the development of warfare Essay Example for Free

The various stages in the development of warfare Essay Technology defines the strategic agenda of a nation at any given time; in particular, the concepts of war, crisis, terrorism and therefore military warfare. Military technology has allowed for Inter-Continental Ballistic Missiles, Precision Guided Munitions, Long Range Theatre Nuclear Weapons, Ballistic Missile-Carrying Submarines and many more. New military concepts have arisen out from the advancement of military technology, for example arms races or Mutually Assured Destruction; all of these complex military terminologies were unheard of in the middle of the 19th century, therefore showing how drastic warfare has developed since then. As military warfare has an extremely strong influence on the state of international relations as it affects the balance of power and the polarity of the world, it is important to understand both why and how the wars that happen today have expanded. The industrial revolution in the middle of the 19th century brought about a fundamental transformation in military technology; gone were the cavalry wars with spears as weapons and castles as defence, in was the mass production of war machinery. Nearly every aspect of warfare changed, and has been advancing and increasing ever since. The firepower of guns and bombs evolved from 3/4 rounds per minute muzzle loading muskets to machine guns capable of firing 650 rounds per minute1; although first used in the 1883 American Civil War which led to 600,000 dead, machine guns were widely used in World War One and helped make 400,0002 British casualties in the Battle of the Somme. From the middle of the 20th century the focus moved to weapons of mass destruction, in particular nuclear weapons, where technology allowed for more range and accuracy, and ICBMs and PGMs are capable of wiping out whole towns. Due to this, war has extended from armies to ordinary civilians, therefore potentially increasing death tolls and creating more fear among inhabitants of a country at war as attacks can be secret. The mobility and transport of armies has also changed which has an effect on the development of warfare; the pre-mid 19th century wooden sail powered ships with cannons used during many of the British invasions of India, Australia and Africa proved impractical and from the 1870s onwards, iron steam powered battleships were built. This allowed for access to enemy lands by sea with a lower risk of being sunk, and so invasions became easier, for example the Boer War from 1899 to 1902. The industrial revolution of the mid 1800s created advanced railways so soldiers could be deployed rapidly; this increased the speed of wars from the traditional wars on foot, and prevented enemy stated from having time to prepare for war. The introduction of the motorcar in the beginning of the 20th century also helped the mobility of warfare, with army trucks being used in most of the wars since then; in addition, the invention of tanks and submarines combined strong defence with the ability to attack, therefore causing more damage with fewer home casualties. The development of aircraft since the mid 19th century has been extremely significant; the first victims of air war were Arab villagers in Libya during the Italian war on Turkey 1911-123, and although aircraft was used in World War One, the turning point of air warfare was the Second World War, where the Blitzkrieg strikes on British civilian towns by the German Luftwaffe created a new warfare that involved ordinary inhabitants. Similarly, in recent air strikes on Afghanistan and Iraq by technologically advanced fighter planes such as B-1 and B52 bombers have further increased the speed and devastation caused by war. Protection has also changed over the years, from impractical individual heavy metal armour used by armies before the mid 19th century to much more alternative methods of protection. In World War One, the use of trenches to protect soldiers proved ineffective, however the civilian attacks during the Second World War meant that new types of protection were introduced: air raid sirens, blackouts and gas masks from enemy air warfare. Technology in the late 20th century extended methods of protection to Electronic Counter Measures to locate enemy weapons even before they are deployed the ultimate method of protection. This would not have been possible without the advancement in artificial intelligence through sophisticated computers to perform operations such as detecting long-range missiles from satellite cameras. The advancement of military warfare is due to a number of things: the progression of science and development of human intelligence mainly as a result of better education and more of a desire to be all-knowing has created more effective and practical ideas for warfare. In addition, the influx capitalism after the industrial revolution has meant that the munitions industry has profit to be made, and as capitalism seems ever increasing the production of weapons has also amplified. Also, countries around the world have increased their defence spending budgets therefore more money is constantly being spent on inventing the best, most destructive, powerful weapons. This, along with the enlarged competition between states to have the most advanced technological warfare machinery has led to a number of disputes which set the agenda for international relations at the time. The Cold War between Russia and the United States from the middle of the 20th century until the collapse of the Soviet Union mainly consisted of an unofficial arms race: repeated, competitive and reciprocal adjustments of their war making capacities between two nations4, with both countries building up baroque arsenals of ICBMs and the most advanced nuclear bombs. Action-Reaction models such as the Cold War creates a security dilemma not just for those involved but for the whole world: An action by any state to increase its military strength will raise the level of threat seen by other states and cause them to react by increasing their own strength5. An example of this recently could be the nuclear proliferation of the nine states who presently have nuclear weapons; countries who dont have nuclear arms may feel threatened by those who do and wish to build up their arms, and so this potential horizontal proliferation would in turn make those who have arms build up theirs even more, creating increased vertical proliferation. Nuclear multi-polarity in the world is likely to be dangerous as there is more chance of rogue states using their weapons and creating more prolific, devastating wars. While many argue the move to nuclear warfare is better than outdated methods of warfare such as battles as it creates deterrence between states to use their weapons. This could be proven by the fact that since the invention of nuclear weapons in the middle of the 20th century there has been no nuclear wars; however the example of the United States atomic bomb on Hiroshima and Nagasaki in 1945 show how much devastation and horror they could cause. Also, the new threat of biological and chemical weapons has added to the potential threat of large-scale modern warfare that no longer involves a countrys army only; it seems like the world could potentially be moving into a second nuclear age. The progress between offensive and defensive warfare has also changed since the middle of the 19th century; however it seems to have followed a regular pattern. Pre 19th century cavalry wars were largely offensive wars, with attacks on foot and high casualties; the first World War consisted of mainly defence tactics like building extensive trenches; the second World War was again offensive, with air warfare bombing campaigns; the evolution of nuclear arms is largely as a defence mechanism, for example the concept of Mutually Assured Destruction; and recent wars such as the US attacks on Iraq and Afghanistan have been mostly offensive bombing campaigns. Another factor to consider of how warfare has changed is how the world is not entirely a multi-polar earth; recently, it seems like a potentially unstable combination of unifying centripetal and separating centrifugal forces struggling over the periphery. In addition, the threat of non state actors has also changed warfare; until recently, the enemy could be located in one state, however the main problem for western democracies in international relations today is the threat of terrorism, with the Al Quaida network appearing all over the world. This creates the problem of not knowing where to attack, and counties such as America attacking countries like Afghanistan just because they believe they were harbouring terrorists after the September the 11th attacks. It is likely that warfare technology will advance in the future despite the disarmament issue over the past few decades. While superpower countries like the United States continue with their arms building, refuse to ratify the Nuclear Test Ban Treaty or participate in talks regarding the Antiballistic Missile Treaty in June, and continue to own 95% of the 31,000-plus nuclear weapons along with Russia6, the Doomsday Clock might actually reach midnight. After World War One, Sir Edward Grey said that the horrors of the Great War would make it possible for states to find as least one common ground on which they should come together in confident understanding: an agreement that, in the disputes between them, war must be ruled out as a means of settlement that entails ruin7. Obviously, this idea seems much too idealistic when we look back at the technological advancements in warfare since World War One, which can maybe suggest that states will always dispute and technology will always adva nce the terrifying thought of a future super-war is very possible. BIBLIOGRAPHY Buzan, Barry, Strategic Studies: Military Technology and International Relations, London: Macmillan, 1987 Freedman, Lawrence, The Evolution of Nuclear Strategy, London: Macmillan, 1989 Goldstein, Joshua, International Relations, New York: Longman, 1999 Gray, Colin, The Second Nuclear Age, Boulder, CO: Lynne Rienner, 1999 Waltz, Kenneth, Man, the State and War, New York: Colombia University Press, 1959 www.thebulletin.org 1 Buzan, Barry, Strategic Studies: Military Technology and International Relations, London: Macmillan, 1987 2 http://www.phoenixpress.co.uk/articles/events/somme-battle-of-pp.asp 3 Freedman, Lawrence, The Evolution of Nuclear Strategy, London: Macmillan, 1989, p4 4 Steiner, Barry, Arms Races, Diplomacy and Recurring Behaviour: Lessons from Two Cases, Beverly Hills: Sage, 1973 5 Rathjens, G. W., The Dynamics of the Arms Race, in Herbert York (ed.), Arms Control, San Francisco: Freeman, 1973 6 www.thebulletin.org 7 Grey, Edward, Twenty Five Years, New York: Frederick A Stokes Co., 1925, p285

Dantes Inferno Essay example -- Dante Inferno Essays

Dante's Inferno It was sometime in the middle of the 17th century that British cleric Thomas Fuller wrote, "He that falls into sin is a man; that grieves at it, is a saint; that boasteth of it, is a devil." If Fuller was right, where does one place Dante, the pilgrim who bravely wandered where no man had wandered before? Certainly, the sojourner precisely written by the poet of the same name was a man. Certainly, also, he repented his sinful ways (how could one not after braving not only the depths of Hell but later the stretches of Purgatory and the "many waters" of Heaven?), but he was no saint. Indeed, Inferno itself can be easily construed as a boast of sorts—made it through hell, met Lucifer, bought the t-shirt. But in reality, the book is much more subtle, and the journey much more enlightening to readers as one watches Dante, an Everyman if ever there was one, change his thought processes even as foot passes foot on his journey downward. When examining just what type of man Dante the poet was, it's important to note the society of the times. To be from Italy†¦or, even more specifically, from Florence†¦was an important distinction. Even today, Italy is a center of religion. In 1330, Italy was not only a Catholic Mecca but a republican haven. Dante the poet was not the only citizen of the city to gain distinction—Michelangelo, Raphael, and da Vinci all proudly added "Florentine" under their signatures. Additionally, Pope Gregory XI would find the city sinful enough to excommunicate the entire place forty-six short years later. Living in such a tumultuous and dynamic atmosphere, it was no wonder that Dante the poet, already in exile, would place his literary counterpart (for clearly the pilgrim is ss otherwise specified... ...e progress of the pilgrim from a sinner, sympathetic even to those condemned by God, to that of a saint of sorts, vindictive and scornful of the enemies of the church. The presence of the two further episodes of Dante the poet's Divine Comedy (Purgatorio and Paradiso) indicates that the pilgrim's spiritual education is not complete, but he has learned a great deal throughout his journey throughout hell—arising from the subterranean with less moral confusion and a greater sense of God-fearing reverence. For 14th century Italy, the alternative was more than a personality flaw†¦it was a stigma. The poet, alone and in exile, had taken truly to heart and to paper the words that his Romantic counterpart Percy Shelley (a man who would be called to Italy himself time and time again) would write nearly 500 years later: "The great instrument of moral good is the imagination."

Four Principles Essay

Community corrections are â€Å"non-prison sanctions that are imposed on convicted adults or adjudicated juveniles either by a court instead of a prison sentence or by a parole board following release from prison.† (Joan Petersilia Para. 1) There are four general principles of effective intervention that have become organizing concepts of community corrections in what has become known as the â€Å"what works† movement. In this paragraph I will describe all four of the general principles of effective intervention, risk principle, criminogenic need principle, treatment principle, and fidelity principle, and the way they work. The first of the four principles of effective intervention is risk principle. Risk principle tells us that intervention programs should use a mix of cognitive and behavioral strategies (Wright, 2012.) This is saying that the intervention should target high risk offenders, to prevent them from reoffending. Research has proved that targeting high risk offenders works more often then targeting low risk offenders. Certain offenses are considered low risk and others high. That is what qualifies you as a low and high risk offender by what offense you committed the first time. Moreover, research also shows that targeting low-risk offenders with intensive treatment can actually increase their reoffending (Latessa, 2010). That is why within the four principles it does not target low right offenders. I agree with this system completely, we should pay more attention to the more serious offenders, because if they did a serious offense in the first place, they will do it again, and we  must tar get these people to try and stop them. According to Gendra and Paparozzi with Corrections Today, â€Å"When Robert Martinson predicted some 20 years ago that the new epoch in corrections would focus on punishment, many of us who were working in the system at that time did not realize how prescient he was. Today, the U.S. corrections system relies on the threat of punishment to bring about law-abiding behavior. Evidence of this can be seen in the proliferation of intensive supervision programs (ISPs), boot camps, shock incarceration and people’s prisons.† (Gendreau, P., & Paparozzi, M. A., 1995) I know that this intervention works because I have been to boot camp myself, and as they call it the â€Å"scare tactic† it really does work. When you do something incorrect or not to standards in the military they will scare soldiers with punishment, the reason it scares the soldiers is because they know that they will go through with the punishment because they have been punished before. The second of the four principles of effective intervention is ciminogenic need principle. Criminogenic need principle posits that intervention programs must focus on change factors related to the offender’s antisocial conduct. Some of the important factors to target include antisocial values and attitudes, substance abuse, antisocial peers, dysfunctional families, and poor decision-making and problem-solving skills. â€Å"Unfortunately many intervention programs target factors that have little or nothing to do with an individual’s current criminal behavior.† (Wright, F  2012) When going up in a dysfunctional family, you learn that it is acceptable to be that way. When gang member have children , their children grow up thinking that what their parent is doing is acceptable, so when they get to the age that they can make their own decisions, they do what they grew up knowing, gang banging. On the contrary an example I am going to bring up the incident that happened in Connecticut a couple days ago. The killer did not have a dysfunctional family, but the old babysitter had reported that when she would watch him his mother would say to never take her eye off of him, even when going to the bathroom which can form a theory that he had always acted up in odd ways. The third of the four principles of  effective intervention is the treatment principle. The treatment principle tells us that intervention programs should use a mix of cognitive and behavioral strategies. As John Wright states, â€Å"Cognitive approaches confront the way offenders think, their criminal values and attitudes, and their decision making. Behavioral approaches, by contrast, seek to model, reward, and reinforce prosocial behavior. Numerous studies show that cognitive-behavioral strategies work better than other intervention strategies for offenders, including nondirective talk therapy and psychoanalytic approaches. Nondirective approaches do not tend to work with most offenders because they are usually concrete in their thinking and not always able to think rationally.† (J. Wright, 2012) When you are in prison, if you do not get into trouble they will send you to a work camp, which gives you more privileges than the average prisoner. When you get in trouble in prison, they will take away any little privileges that you do have, that would be an example of behavioral approaches. An example of a cognitive approach would be to have a criminal in therapy, with a physiological expert who would know how to pick the offenders brain to figure out the way they think then question them on the reason they think like that. The fourth and last principle of effective intervention is the fidelity principle. The fidelity principle is in affect to make it so that the other three principles are being held to the standard. â€Å"Some individuals should never work with offenders. When they do they often reinforce criminal thinking patterns and antisocial behavior† (J. Wright 2012). The people that work with these offenders must be one hundred percent qualified, and well as have proven positive results of their work or else their job in this intervention is useless. The working will just cause the offenders to get worst. All the jobs within the intervention are important because if everyone is not doing their part within the program then the results from the program will not look effective. These four principles have been proven to be effective and I believe that if we continue to use it, that we will avoid many offenders from have a second  offense and keep the crime rate down within our country. In this essay you have learned all four of the principles effective in the community corrections, risk principle, crimongenic  need principle, treatment principle, and fidelity principle, and the roles that they play within the intervention. References Beeler, A. (2007). What works in corrections: Reducing the criminal activities of offenders and delinquents. Corrections Compendium, 32(2), 36-36. Retrieved from http://search.proquest.com/docview/211806856?accountid=32521 Gendreau, P., & Paparozzi, M. A. (1995). Examining what works in community corrections. Corrections Today, 57(1), 28-28. Retrieved from http://search.proquest.com/docview/215705816?accountid=32521 Petersilia, J (November 2007) What Works In Community Corrections, The PEW Center of the States. Retrieved by http://www.pewtrusts.org Wright, J (2012) What Works In Changing Offenders? Retrieved from https://content.ashford.edu/books/AUCRJ201.12.1

Homelessness The Social Impact - 1308 Words

Oh you live in Longview, Washington? A term that is stated way to often when someone claims they live there. Disproportionate assumptions of the town are often made by those who usually have never even stepped foot in Longview. Before Washington passed a law forbidding panhandling, it wasn t an unusual sight to see a homeless person on the side of the road holding a sign begging for change. What Longview, Washington needs is a strong structured program, that helps transition homeless not only gets homeless off the streets but also keeps them off. It’s important, especially to give help to the young, encouraging and directing them into the right path. The youth who are out of home, dealing with mental illness, or struggling with†¦show more content†¦Currently Vancouver Washington offers a program designed to assist the youth who struggle with homeless and mental health called Options Youth house. As stated on the our services website, â€Å"the youth house is available to youth under the age of 24, who are homeless, living in unstable environments or struggling with mental health† (Our Services). They provide a social worker who works one on one with individuals designing a plan that best fits each individual’s needs. For the youth who are struggling with mental illness they provide support not only from a counselor, but also from a licensed psychologist who can assist with any medications that may be needed. As mentioned in our services, youth who struggle with mental illnesses that go untreate d are at higher risk for becoming homeless or struggle with drug addiction (Our Services). Having the opportunity to work on one with a counselor and social worker exposes the youth how to learn new coping skills in a healthy manor. They also provide support from an employment specialist, who is able to help with schooling, resume, work resources and more. A program like this would be very beneficial to Longview’s youth. A program that offers services like the youth house shouldn’t just end at the age of 24. There should be a program that goes a step even further and offers help to the adults who are struggling with homelessness, unstable living situations, and mental illnesses! As explained