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The defence industrial strategy published in December 2005 (Command paper Cm. 6697, ISBN 0101669720). Its aim was to provide greater transparency on the UK's future defence requirements and to set out those industrial capabilities the UK needs to maintain appropriate sovereignty and operate equipment independently. The Committee praises the production of the strategy to a tight timetable and with wide consultation. The strategy has been well received by industry. In the future there will be more focus on upgrading and maintaining platforms rather than designing and building new equipment. The Committee wants the Ministry of Defence (MoD) to continue improvements in the procurement process, a...
In its White Paper (published in December 2006 as Cm 6994, ISBN 0101699425) on the future of the UK's nuclear deterrent, the Government reaffirmed its commitment to maintain the submarine-based Trident weapons system. This will require the procurement of a new generation of nuclear-powered Trident submarines to replace the current fleet of Vanguard-class submarines. Following on from the Committee's earlier report on the strategic context and timetable for decision-making on the renewal of the UK's nuclear deterrent (HCP 986, session 2005-06; ISBN 0215029445), this report focuses on issues related to the UK manufacturing and skills base. These include: the level of investment needed to susta...
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In Building the Trident Network, Maggie Mort approaches the United Kingdom's Trident submarine and missile system as a sociotechnical network. Drawing on the sociology of scientific and technical knowledge and on actor-network theory, Mort recounts how the Trident program was stabilized in the United Kingdom and brought into "successful" production. She uncovers the nature of this success by retelling unofficial histories of Trident, of production roads not taken, and of potential technological "distractions." The production of Trident, she shows, was not inevitable but contingent and problematic. Using material from interviews and local texts, Mort explores the emergence of a counternetwork...
These essays explore the increase in interest in non-lethal weapons. Such devices have meant that many armed forces and law enforcement agencies are able to act against undesirables without being accused of acting in an inhumane way. Topics for discussion in this volume include: an overview of the future of non-lethal weapons; emerging non-lethal technologies; military and police operational deployment of non-lethal weapons; a scientific evaluation of the effectiveness of non-lethal weapons; changes in international law needed to take into account non-lethal technologies; developments in genomics leading to new chemical incapacitants; implications for arms control and proliferation; the role of non-lethal weapons in human rights abuses; conceptual, theoretical and analytical perspectives on the nature of non-lethal weapons development.
The control of arms by means of non-proliferation and disarmament is one of the most important aims of Government foreign policy. The proliferation of weapons of mass destruction - nuclear, chemical and biological - poses a grave threat to UK and global security. This report was prompted by recent developments relating to nuclear weapons but also examines wider issues. The Committee examine: the Government's approach to non-proliferation and the institutional and policy issues relevant to the UK, the EU, NATO and the United States; nuclear weapons including the Nuclear Non-proliferation Treaty and nuclear disarmament; biological and chemical weapons; ballistic missiles and missile defence; terrorism and physical security; and conventional weapons. Finally the report assesses the Government's overall strategy, which is characterised by a commitment to a rules-based international system.
The character of Colonel Kurtz in the Vietnam War film epic Apocalypse Now is reportedly the cinematic depiction of a real CIA agent and a trained killer. His name was Anthony Poshepny, but he was better known as Tony Poe. Poe was a heavy drinker, a stocky former Marine sergeant with the elite Parachute Battalion, and a CIA paramilitary agent. In 1942, at the age of seventeen, he joined the Marine Raiders. In Guadalcanal, he hunted down Japanese soldiers. In 1945, he led his machine gun section ashore across the knee-deep black sands at Red Beach on Iwo Jima. Recruited by the CIA in 1951, he was told that his role as a paramilitary agent was to carry out the Agency’s dirty work, which coul...