The morality of substitution intervention:The case of Yemen

Throughout the Yemeni Civil War, western states have supplied weapons used in the indiscriminate bombing campaign conducted by the Saudis. In defence of their actions, British politicians have argued that they are exchanging weapons for influence, and using the influence obtained to encourage compliance with humanitarian law. An additional premise in the argument is that Britain is using its influence more benignly than alternative suppliers would use theirs if Britain were not on the scene. The idea is that Britain is substituting itself for other, less scrupulous, interveners. I argue that, regardless of whether British substitution intervention could be justified in this way…, it is not in fact justified, because Britain has not plausibly used its influence to secure an amount of good sufficient to offset the various harms that its actions have created (or to discharge the expanded duties of rescue that greater influence entails). In addition, the article identifies the various forms that substitution intervention can take, and shows how the concept reveals hitherto neglected reasons to both support and oppose intervention in foreign conflicts.

Characteristics of Criminal Responsibility for the Participation of Citizens of the Republic of Kazakhstan in Foreign Armed Conflicts

The article examines the characteristics of the participation of citizens of the Republic of Kazakhstan in foreign conflicts as an object of criminal investigation. The mechanisms for the emergence of foreign armed conflicts, as well as the reasons and conditions that facilitate the participation of citizens of the Republic of Kazakhstan, have been examined. In the course of the study of international legislation and international experience in regulating public relations in this area, specific recommendations and methodology for studying of the participation of citizens of the Republic of Kazakhstan in foreign conflicts have been developed as an independent research object. Due to the lack of legal means for bringing persons who took part in fighting abroad to responsibility, the criminal liability of citizens for involvement in armed conflicts in the territory of foreign states was introduced in domestic legislation. The authors of the study identified the public danger of the crime, which meant that citizens of Kazakhstan, when returning to their home country, by acquiring a subversive-terrorist experience, could contribute to the commission of crimes directed against the national security of the Republic of Kazakhstan. According to the findings of the study, successful and effective opposition to the participation of citizens of the Republic of Kazakhstan in foreign conflicts depends largely on the degree of theoretical development of the considered problem.

Lebanese ‘dissociation’ from Syria will stall

Significance Ties have been difficult since Prime Minister Saad al-Hariri reversed his Saudi-inspired resignation on November 4, despite his insistence that it was on the basis that all parties in Lebanon -- including Hezbollah, backed by Riyadh’s enemy, Tehran -- would ‘dissociate’ themselves from foreign conflicts. This position wavered on December 16, when Nabil Qaouq, a senior Hezbollah leader, said that the Shia movement will give full support to the Palestinian ‘resistance’ after the US decision to recognise Jerusalem as the capital of Israel. Impacts Heightened tension on the Lebanese-Israeli border will increase the chances of a miscalculation leading to confrontation. Complete Hezbollah intransigence on the dissociation agreement could force Saudi Arabia to reconsider its support for Hariri. A crisis within the Palestinian Authority could spill over to Lebanon, with factional confrontations in the Palestinian refugee camps.

Four Japanese: Their Plans for the Expansion of Japan to the Philippines

Between 1886 and 1891, four Japanese nationalist-activists – Yoko Tosaku, Sugiura Jugo, Suganuma Teifu and Fukumoto Makoto – described their plans for Japanese expansion to the Philippines. These men, writing during the time of ideological ferment in the early Meiji period, represented a significant trend of thought when Japan was greatly concerned with the problem of attaining an international position to assure her national security. This was also a period when the Japanese government, guided by the Meiji oligarchs, adopted a “policy of restraint” from territorial expansion which might involve Japan in foreign conflicts while they were undertaking the modernization as well the industrialization of the country.