̽��ֱ�� of Cambridge - security

̽��ֱ��Whistle: verifying digital evidence of human rights violations

lw355 — Wed, 12 Oct 2016 11:01:53 +0000

̽��ֱ��footage is shaky but the sounds of gunfire and “Allahu Akbar!” are unmistakable as the boy darts along the dusty road towards the burnt-out car. Puffs of smoke erupt around him. He falls to his knees. Has he been shot? It’s hard to tell, but a moment later he is up again, running for the shelter of the abandoned car. Yet it’s not over. He emerges holding the hand of an even younger girl dressed in pink. They run, hesitantly at first, then desperately. ̽��ֱ��fear on their faces is palpable.

This is the ‘Syrian Hero Boy’. ̽��ֱ��footage appeared on 10 November 2014 on YouTube and it quickly went viral as millions of viewers watched, astonished at the boy’s bravery and shocked at a world that could place children in such danger.

But further shock was to come. ̽��ֱ��film was fake. It was filmed in Malta on the set of Gladiator by Norwegian film-maker Lars Klevberg.

Klevberg’s intention was to spur debate about children and war. By pretending the film was real, he believed that “people would share it and react with hope.”

It also drew attention to an increasingly common scenario: fake footage appearing on social media. “By publishing a clip that could appear to be authentic, we hoped to take advantage of a tool that’s often used in war; make a video that claims to be real,” he said.

In our digitally enabled world, a legion of ‘civilian witnesses’ has sprung up: individuals “in the wrong place at the wrong time” who capture an event and then publish the scrap of footage or the incriminating photograph on social media. But amid the fog of propaganda, hoaxes and digital manipulation, how can we tell what’s real and what’s fake?

Cambridge researchers are developing an automated tool, ‘the Whistle’, to help verify the authenticity of digital evidence.

Behind the Whistle is sociologist Dr Ella McPherson: “There is much excitement about the speed with which news can be captured by bystanders and disseminated on social media. In the field of human rights, it allows fact-finders for NGOs to get digital reports of violations from hard-to-reach places.

“In a country such as Syria, which is largely closed to outside observers, YouTube videos are a crucial source of information for people within and without its borders and contribute to an information environment incomparable to the past.”

She mentions footage that appeared on social media in 2013 which Syrian opposition activists claimed as being evidence of a chemical weapons attack. An expert told the BBC that the footage was consistent with such an attack, although he cautioned that it was difficult to verify the film owing to the absence of metadata. Meanwhile the state-run news agency Sana said the claims were “baseless” and an attempt to distract United Nations weapons inspectors.

“This example shows the nature of the terrain we are now in: news is disseminated fast but verification is slow and often contested,” says McPherson. “For human rights NGOs, credibility can be lost in a moment if the evidence they are using for advocacy or in courts is later found to be false. No matter how devastating the documented violations, they cannot act on them unless they can verify them first.”

Many guidelines, handbooks and tools now exist to help the verification process. ̽��ֱ��‘witness’ can be checked through their digital footprint – their organisational affiliations or a social media profile, for instance. ̽��ֱ��image itself can be corroborated through comparison with landmarks and weather data, or checked using tools that ‘reverse image search’ for previous publication.

However, all of this takes precious time, which may introduce bias – those who are easier to verify may be more likely to be heard than those who have few resources and a minimal digital footprint.

Through her research interests in how social media can be used by human rights NGOs for generating governmental accountability, McPherson became increasingly aware that fact-finders were struggling with the torrent of information. Time spent verifying was in danger of crippling this most powerful means of communication. For Syria, fact-finders have described the number of videos and photos as becoming a ‘Big Data’ problem.

̽��ֱ��Whistle is a digital platform that speeds up the whole process. Being developed for mobile and web, the app eases the process of reporting for the witness, and prompts them to furnish the information needed by the fact-finder for verification – the “who, what, why, where, when” metadata. A ‘dashboard’ then aggregates the information and automates the cross-checking process of comparing the civilian witness report to the many databases that are used to corroborate reliability.

“We knew from fact-finders that civilian witnesses do not necessarily know what metadata is or that they should include it with their information – even something as simple as panning the horizon for landmarks or turning on geolocation features. ̽��ֱ��Whistle prompts them for the information at the time of upload, so the fact-finders don’t have to piece it together later. It also provides individuals with information literacy – helps them understand what characteristics their information should ideally have in order to do things for them.”

Initially funded by Cambridge’s Economic and Social Research Council Impact Acceleration Account, the Whistle is now funded by the European Union as part of ‘ChainReact’, a multi-partner programme to support whistle-blowing in business. ̽��ֱ��team has grown to six members and plans to start using the demo of the Whistle to gain feedback from NGOs and civilian witnesses.

McPherson sees the Whistle as a tool for NGOs to use in the field, rather than as a global repository of information, since the latter would create security risks for the whistle-blowers: “Security challenges vary a lot according to context, and we don’t see ourselves as ever being able to anticipate all the security challenges of a local context – it depends on the threat model. So we always want to partner with local organisations.” Although civilians may never have heard of the Whistle, they are likely to be aware of the support of a local NGO, who would then direct them towards the tool as a means to submit information. “It would then be up to the NGO to decide what to do with the data,” she explains.

McPherson is reflective when she considers the implications of a digital world that requires tools such as the Whistle to verify trustworthiness. “Reporting violations and fact-finding are communicative acts of ‘bearing witness’ – inherently human activities that involve solidarity, support and rapport. Technological innovations mean that we may increasingly have to replace this with reporting to a machine – how do you balance that opportunity with safeguards around traumatisation? This is something we don’t yet have answers for.”

Nevertheless, she and her team are aware that an increase in digital information on human rights violations only translates into evidence once it is validated. “Tools like the Whistle are desperately needed by fact-finders to reduce the labour time in sifting the wheat from the chaff, and to make it easier for them to evaluate more digital information for evidence.

“We hope that our platform will increase the possibility that those who report violations receive attention, and particularly that those who most need access to human rights mechanisms are heard.”

̽��ֱ��team behind the Whistle include Dr Ella McPherson, Rebekah Larsen, Giles Barton-Owen, Isabel Guenette Thornton, Matt Mahmoudi, Sarah Villeneuve, Dr Richard Mills and Scott Limbrick.

Smartphones and social media have made it easy for accidental witnesses “in the wrong place at the wrong time” to capture and share violations and crimes. But how can we tell what’s real and what’s fake?

For human rights NGOs, credibility can be lost in a moment if the evidence they are using for advocacy or in courts is later found to be false

Ella McPherson

Petter Onstad Løkke

'Syrian Hero Boy'

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Opinion: Governments should turn to academics for advice on radicalisation, religion and security

Anonymous — Thu, 03 Dec 2015 15:30:10 +0000

In August 1939, the operational head of Britain’s Government Communication and Cypher School, Alistair Denniston, wrote to the Foreign Office about the need to recruit “men of the professor type” into the wartime code-breaking hub at Bletchley Park in order to help combat the Nazi threat.

Following the horror of marauding attacks in Paris, the British prime minister has announced he will be recruiting a further 1,900 personnel to the Security and Intelligence Agencies. “Professors” may also be able to add value to these organisations and wider society. ̽��ֱ��government should not forget the wealth of talent available within our universities to offer insight and depth to the judgments of decision-makers.

In my capacity as champion to the Partnership for Conflict, Crime & Security Research, I organised a workshop recently where four leading academics discussed how best to get research on religion and contemporary security challenges in front of politicians, policymakers and the press, to help them deliver better service to the public. ̽��ֱ��academics were historian of Muslim thought Robert Gleave; Kim Knott who researches ideologies, beliefs and decision-making; Peter Morey who explores trust between Muslims and non-Muslims, and John Wolffe who works on the interface between religion and security.

One key message from this debate was that those in positions of authority and influence must overcome the tendency to regard religious issues as marginal until they become a security risk. Religion is poorly understood, and while academic focus on definition can be dismissed as pedantry, there is a need for clarity when talking about religion and security – to avoid millions of devout people around the world being swept into a bucket labelled “terrorist”.

Improve religious literacy

For instance, research helps us to draw a distinction between religion and faith. Religion is defined by creed, doctrine, framework and practice; whereas faith is more personal, abstract, emotional and often at some distance from the teachings of established religious institutions.

We must improve religious literacy among politicians, policymakers, the press and the general public. In a security context, this should include a more nuanced understanding of the variants of institutionalised religion, while comprehending the universe occupied by men and women of faith.

A single office of responsibility in the government could act as a conduit for informing and shaping policy and legislation relating to religion and religious issues, including those linked to security and violence. An immediate priority for the office should be to inform efforts to address radicalisation, Islamophobia and other forms of prejudice. This wouldn’t carry any extra cost if one of the government’s chief scientific advisors was asked to undertake this work, tapping into the wealth of expertise addressing these issues inside the nation’s universities.

Opinion-formers, including those in the press, must also resist the simplistic temptation to describe religion as the motive for acts of violence. In the same way, “Third World” insurgents during the Cold War, such as those in North Vietnam, were too easily defined by the Communist ideology they embraced.

How to dispel alienation

But closer attention needs to be paid to the relationship between faith and alienation. There is a wealth of research – including historian Kate Cooper’s work into the radicalisation of early Christian martyrs over 1,500 years’ ago – that can help us understand how alienation, especially of young people, leads to a sense of hopelessness that translates all too readily into violent resolve.

We must galvanise support for the public sector, faith groups and charities to promote engagement between polarised communities. But this is not a simple matter of issuing a commandment from on-high that: “thou shalt engage in mutually informative dialogue and develop trustful relationships”.

Evidence and experience, for instance from Northern Ireland, shows how different the certainties of macro-political strategies can be from micro-realities, leading to communities being filled with mistrust and disillusionment. Interventions tailored to dispel alienation and build trust must reflect local circumstances, with a strong emphasis on “bottom-up” rather than “top-down” solutions.

There are some powerful examples of how the arts can operate to communicate religious difference in our complex, multicultural society, but common artistic endeavor can also help heal divisions. For example, the UK-based Berakah Choir works to transcend barriers of faith and culture through collaborative activities, allowing the individual voice to be heard working in harmony with others to build a common humanity. There is much that could be achieved at a low cost to harness the arts to counter alienation.

Draw on academics as an asset

Western governments are deploying a range of strategies and tactics to deal with the threat posed by the so-called Islamic State. David Cameron is recruiting more spies, and parliament is discussing profound changes to the way in which digital intelligence is collected.

Great minds were brought together at Bletchley. Marcin Wichary/flickr.com, CC BY

But we must not ignore the invaluable supply of knowledge and insight available from our men and women in academia. Research can provide evidence-based context to contemporary challenges, including an enlightened understanding of the place of religion and faith in a security context.

We can stop mistakes being made in terms of misguided policies and knee-jerk reactions. And researchers can help the design and deployment of interventions that make a real difference, focusing limited resources effectively.

It has been said that the scholars working in Bletchley Park saved countless lives and took one or more years off the duration of World War II. Let us hope that politicians, policy-makers and the press are enlightened enough to make full use of the contribution that university researchers can make to today’s security challenges.

Tristram Riley-Smith, Associate Fellow, Centre for Science and Policy; Director of Research, Department of Politics & International Studies, ̽��ֱ�� of Cambridge

This article was originally published on ̽��ֱ��Conversation. Read the original article.

̽��ֱ��opinions expressed in this article are those of the individual author(s) and do not represent the views of the ̽��ֱ�� of Cambridge.

Tristram Riley-Smith (Department of Politics and International Studies) discusses how universities and academics can add insight and depth to national security decisions.

Takver

Bataclan Paris attacks memorial

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Innocent landscape or coded message? Artists under suspicion in the First World War

amb206 — Tue, 22 Apr 2014 14:53:59 +0000

Last month the government announced an initiative to commemorate the First World War with a programme of cultural events called 14-18 NOW. Through Arts Council England, it will fund commissions by leading artists from Britain and around the world “to create works that reflect on the impact and legacy of the First World War”.

Art has long been at the mercy of politics. Research by art historian and broadcaster Dr James Fox reveals that a century ago the present government’s predecessor in the shape of Asquith’s wartime cabinet was convinced that art posed such a threat to the security of the nation that it made painting out of doors illegal around the country.

Fox, a Research Fellow at Gonville & Caius College and known to public audiences for his BBC documentaries, first came across the subject while researching his PhD about art and the First World War. He explained: “I kept finding strange passages in which artists confessed to being abused, interrogated and arrested while painting and sketching outdoors. Virtually nothing had been written about the reason for these bizarre experiences, so I set about trawling newspapers, government reports and police records in search of clues. What I discovered was astonishing.”

Fox’s findings were first published in the British Art Journal in 2009. A more extensive discussion of the same topic will form a chapter in his forthcoming book, Business unusual: British art and the First World War, 1914-1924.

With the outbreak of the First World War, the British people – who had only recently become obsessed with spy novels and films – grew paranoid that undercover German agents were infiltrating the nation. “ ̽��ֱ��public became suspicious of almost everyone who didn’t fit in. Of the many groups who suffered from these suspicions, some of the most adversely affected were artists,” said Fox.

̽��ֱ��notion that artists might be spies drew some of its credence from none other than Robert Baden-Powell, founder of the scouting movement. Fox said: “In his book My Adventures as a Spy, Baden-Powell revealed how he and other British spies on the continent had posed as artists and disguised their plans of forts, harbours and industrial areas as innocent sketches of stained glass windows or ivy leaves.

This was one of the reasons why, with the declaration of war in August 1914, artists quickly fell foul of emergency legislation. ̽��ֱ��Defence of the Realm Act (DORA) imposed a regime of draconian censorship on artworks. It also made it illegal to make “any photograph, sketch, plan, model, or other representation of any naval or military work, or of any dock or harbour, or with the intent to assist the enemy, of any other place or thing”.

̽��ֱ��effects were significant. As one artist explained: “No sketching whatever is allowed within four, and in some cases, seven miles of the coast... Even though the subject of the sketch may be a group of trees, a cathedral or a paintable cottage, the rule applies strictly.”

As a result of the legislation, many artists were challenged or arrested: in Scotland the society painter and Royal Academician John Lavery was arrested for painting the Fleet at the Forth Bridge; in Dover the renowned landscape painter Philip Wilson Steer was accosted by “some blighter [who] comes up and wants to see my permit which is very upsetting in the middle of laying a wash”. Reporting from the west coast of Ireland, the post-impressionist Augustus John poked fun at the nation’s panic with the account that “around the harbour… if one starts sketching one is at once shot by a policeman”.

Those most severely hit by the restrictions imposed on painting included the artistic communities based in Cornwall, a county where fears about German invasion were strongest. Artists in the clusters at Newlyn, St Ives and Lamorna felt the restrictions keenly at a time when wartime austerity was already depressing art sales. In Newlyn, the figurative painter Laura Knight wrote that “even to write a perfectly straight line might be interpreted as a sinister act”. In Lamorna, Alfred Munnings (famous for his paintings of horses) remarked that he “dared not be sketching out of doors in the country at all”.

Fox said: “As the war progressed, art itself began to be perceived in an increasingly negative light, downgraded from merely pointless or unnecessary activity to one that was improper and immoral, encouraging selfish and profligate behaviour when selfless sacrifice was what counted. Artists were bracketed together with other alien identities – Jews, pacifists, profiteers, foreigners, newly naturalised Britons.”

Bohemianism itself signalled a lack of patriotism. When a British artist-couple rented a cottage in the West Country, there were immediate suspicions that they were German agents. ̽��ֱ��villagers’ vendetta against them prompted the police to call one of the artists in for questioning. He was soon released. ̽��ֱ��local schoolmistress exclaimed: “If he is not a spy, why does he wear a hat like that?” In London the sculptor Jacob Epstein, with his modernist work and German name, found his studio ransacked.

Fox’s research reveals that in the first month of the war, some 9,000 cases of espionage were reported, yet during the four years of the conflict just 29 spies were convicted. “Hundreds of artists were arrested and questioned, an experience that must have been deeply distressing. But only one of them was found guilty. ̽��ֱ��Norwegian painter, Alfred Hagn, was sentenced to death after invisible ink was discovered in his hotel room in London, but was extradited after going on hunger strike,” said Fox.

̽��ֱ��case that made the biggest impression on the public was that of Philip de László, a famous society portraitist who was Hungarian by birth. His naturalisation as a British subject in 1914, and his easy access to the powerful elite, put him under suspicion. ̽��ֱ��patriotic newspaper John Bull wrote: “ ̽��ֱ��distinguished character of M. de László’s clientele would have afforded him fine opportunities for obtaining first-class information if he had really been desirous of getting it… Cabinet Ministers… are such busy people that they frequently go on working while the artist plies his brush… King George… walks about the room and dictates to his Secretaries while he is “sitting” for his portrait.”

De László was arrested and interned. He was condemned in the press for being one of “the most dangerous spies” of the war, and many called for him to be executed. “After several years imprisoned without charge, De László, rightly, was exonerated. But it had a huge effect on his career, and it took a long time for him to recover,” said Fox.

̽��ֱ��treatment of artists during the First World War seems, with the benefit of hindsight, laughable. Indeed, the notion of middle aged artists being arrested by over-zealous officials while painting pretty watercolours out in the countryside was lampooned in the press at the time. But Fox reminds us that things are not so different today.

“In recent years the government’s attempts to combat terrorism has led to new legislation that authorised police officers to stop and search anyone who appears to be photographing or filming sensitive locations. ̽��ֱ��medium might have changed, but the principle is the same. We remain innately suspicious of images”, he said.

During the First World War artists were widely believed to be spies and, around much of the country, painting became illegal. Research by art historian and broadcaster Dr James Fox reveals how deeply artists were affected, not just by the government’s ban but also by a surge of public paranoia.

̽��ֱ��public became suspicious of almost everyone who didn’t fit in. Of the many groups who suffered from these suspicions, some of the most adversely affected were artists.

James Fox

̽��ֱ��Illustrated War News (7 October 1914)

'An Apparently Innocent Landscape'

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Cambridge Ideas - ̽��ֱ��Crime Experiment

bjb42 — Tue, 12 Apr 2011 11:47:00 +0000

This experiment will study crime hot spots and try out a technique Prof Sherman has developed in USA to lessen crime throughout the city by changing policing at these locations. This is the first time such a systematic experiment on city crime has been mounted in the UK.

Eminent criminologist Prof Lawrence Sherman has just set up a long term experiment with the police, to scientifically study crime in Manchester and come up with some solutions.

̽��ֱ�� of Cambridge

Professor with Police Officer

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NATO and Russia to join in dialogue at icebreaker

bjb42 — Wed, 13 Oct 2010 00:00:00 +0000

Members of NATO and Russian Federation will have their first ever open dialogue on the future of international security in the Arctic this week, amid growing concerns about the consequences of climate change in the region.

Diplomats, academic scientists, government administrators, elected officials, industry executives and directors of international institutions will be meeting at a high-level conference at the ̽��ֱ�� of Cambridge, which aims to address the security implications of the environmental state-change in the Arctic Ocean as a result of global warming.

Scientists predict that within the next few decades the Arctic, which has been covered by sea ice year-round for at least the last 800 thousand years, will become seasonally ice-free, offering new opportunities for the countries and organisations laying claim to the region to tap into its huge reserves of gas and oil. ̽��ֱ��area north of the Arctic Circle is believed to hold about one quarter of the world's natural gas and oil reserves.

̽��ֱ��Arctic coastal states - Russia, Norway, Canada, Denmark and the US - are all asserting their legal rights to sea floor in the Arctic Ocean toward the North Pole, raising the possibility that the region may become a source of political instability, as well as one witnessing dramatic environmental change.

There also are global implications around the possibility that the Arctic Ocean may become a new great trade route between the Pacific and Atlantic, and a source of tension as maritime traders seek to exploit the opportunity that affords.

̽��ֱ��conference, at the ̽��ֱ��'s Scott Polar Research Institute, will for the first time bring together members of both NATO and the Russian Federation around changes of the Arctic as matters of environmental security.

Organisers argue that the Arctic Council, the high-level forum that was established in 1996 initially with the eight Arctic state and indigenous peoples organizations, also needs to consider the role various nations' armed forces will have in ensuring safe, secure and reliable activities in the Arctic Ocean.

Professor Paul Berkman, Head of the Arctic Ocean Geopolitics Programme at the Scott Polar Research Institute, said: " ̽��ֱ��Arctic Ocean is witnessing the largest environmental state-change on Earth, which is introducing political, economic and cultural instabilities that involves a number of nuclear-capable states."

"Such instabilities are the underlying elements of any security challenge. As a result, we can no longer ignore the fact that there are security issues in the Arctic Ocean that need to be addressed to ensure that there is lasting stability in the region."

" ̽��ֱ��biggest risk in the Arctic is complacency about the risks of instabilities. ̽��ֱ��Arctic states and the world have a responsibility to consider strategies that both promote cooperation and prevent conflict - two sides of the coin of peace that are insufficient without the other."

̽��ֱ��Cambridge event is an Advanced Research Workshop, sponsored by NATO's Science for Peace and Security Programme as well as a variety of other organisations, including Shell International and the World Wildlife Fund's International Arctic Programme.

̽��ֱ��Arctic states and Greenland (which is formally classed as a dependency of Denmark) will be joined by representatives from a number of other nations which typically sit as observers on the Arctic Council, including Germany and the United Kingdom.

̽��ֱ��event's stated aims are to address openly the changes taking place in the Arctic as a matter of international environmental security, to build trust between the states involved, and to consider what strategies could be employed to promote co-operation and prevent future conflict between them.

̽��ֱ��Workshop will aim to build directly on the "Forum For Dialogue" that was hosted by the Russian Geographical Society in Moscow last month, where Russian Prime Minister, Vladimir Putin, spoke about the Arctic as an area for global advantage.

Professor Berkman added: "This could turn out to be a critical period not only for the Arctic, but for future relations between the Arctic powers. It seems that the cooperation and trust among the Arctic states has matured since the cold war and is now strong enough to go the next level - to consider strategies and dialogues that prevent conflict. National security policies are being declared and states are adjusting their strategic deployments in the Arctic Ocean, but peace in the region has yet to be explicitly established as a common interest."

" ̽��ֱ��aim of this workshop is to address those issues and initiate the sort of dialogue which will guarantee the future of the region as one of peace and stability."

̽��ֱ��Environmental Security in the Arctic Ocean workshop will be held at the Scott Polar Research Institute, ̽��ֱ�� of Cambridge, from 13 to 15 October. Further details, including the full agenda and list of speakers, can be found at: http://www.spri.cam.ac.uk/research/aog/events/

&lt;p&gt;Members of NATO and Russian Federation will have their first ever open dialogue on the future of international security in the Arctic this week, amid growing concerns about the consequences of climate change in the region.&lt;br /&gt;

&amp;nbsp;

Such instabilities are the underlying elements of any security challenge. As a result, we can no longer ignore the fact that there are security issues in the Arctic Ocean that need to be addressed to ensure that there is lasting stability in the region.

Professor Paul Berkman, Scott Polar Research Institute

Photo Patrick Kelley, U.S. Coast Guard from Flickr

arctic

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Calls for a global nuclear renaissance in new study

bjb42 — Fri, 13 Aug 2010 00:00:00 +0000

̽��ֱ��scientists suggest a two-stage plan in their review paper that could see countries with existing nuclear infrastructure replacing or extending the life of nuclear power stations, followed by a second phase of global expansion in the industry by the year 2030. ̽��ֱ��team say their roadmap could fill an energy gap as old nuclear, gas and coal fired plants around the world are decommissioned, while helping to reduce the planet's dependency on fossil fuels.

̽��ֱ��researchers suggest in their study that based on how technologies are developing, new types of reactors could come online that are much more efficient than current reactors by 2030. At the moment, most countries have light water reactors, which only use a small percentage of the uranium for energy, which means that the uranium is used inefficiently. ̽��ֱ��team suggest that new 'fast reactors' could be developed that could use uranium approximately 15 times more efficiently, which would mean that uranium supplies could last longer, ensuring energy security for countries.

Another idea is to develop reactors with replaceable parts so that they can last in excess of 70 years, compared to 40 or 50 years that plants can currently operate at. Reactors are subjected to harsh conditions including extreme radiation and temperatures, meaning that parts degrade over time, affecting the life of the reactor. Making replaceable parts for reactors would make them more cost effective and safe to run over longer periods of time.

Flexible nuclear technologies could be an option for countries that do not have an established nuclear industry, suggest the scientists. One idea involves ship-borne civil power plants that could be moored offshore, generating electricity for nearby towns and cities. This could reduce the need for countries to build large electricity grid infrastructures, making it more cost effective for governments to introduce a nuclear industry from scratch.

̽��ֱ��researchers also suggest building small, modular reactors that never require refuelling. These could be delivered to countries as sealed units, generating power for approximately 40 years. At the end of its life, the reactor would be returned to the manufacturer for decommissioning and disposal. Because fuel handling is avoided at the point of electricity generation, the team say radiation doses to workers would be reduced, meaning that the plants would be safer to operate.

̽��ֱ��scientists believe the roll out of flexible technologies that could be returned to the manufacturer at their end of their shelf life could also play an important role in preventing the proliferation of nuclear armaments, because only the country of origin would have access to spent fuel, meaning that other countries could not reprocess the fuel for use in weapons.

In the immediate future, the researchers suggest the first stage of the renaissance will see countries with existing nuclear energy infrastructure extending the life of current nuclear power plants. ̽��ֱ��researchers suggest this could be made possible by further developing technologies for monitoring reactors, enabling them to last longer because engineers can continually assess the safety and performance of the power plants.

̽��ֱ��researchers say new global strategies for dealing with spent fuel and radioactive components will have to be devised. Until now, countries have not developed a coordinated strategy for dealing with waste. One suggestion is to develop regional centres, where countries can send their waste for reprocessing, creating new industries in the process.

Professor Robin Grimes, from the Department of Materials at Imperial College London, says: "Our study explores the exciting opportunities that a renaissance in nuclear energy could bring to the world. Imagine portable nuclear power plants at the end of their working lives that can be safely shipped back by to the manufacturer for recycling, eliminating the need for countries to deal with radioactive waste. With the right investment, these new technologies could be feasible. Concerns about climate change, energy security and depleting fossil fuel reserves have spurred a revival of interest in nuclear power generation and our research sets out a strategy for growing the industry long-term, while processing and transporting nuclear waste in a safe and responsible way."

Professor Grimes adds: "In the past, there has been the perception in the community that nuclear technology has not been safe. However, what most people don't appreciate is just how much emphasis the nuclear industry places on safety. In fact, safety is at the very core of the industry. With continual improvements to reactor design, nuclear energy will further cement its position as an important part of our energy supply in the future."

However, the authors caution that governments around the world need to invest more in training the next generation of nuclear engineers. Otherwise, the nuclear industry may not have enough qualified personnel to make the renaissance a reality.

Dr William Nuttall, ̽��ֱ�� Senior Lecturer in Technology Policy at Cambridge Judge Business School, ̽��ֱ�� of Cambridge, concludes: " ̽��ֱ��second phase of the 'Two-Stage Nuclear Renaissance' is not inevitable, but we would be foolish if we did not provide such an option for those that must make key energy technology decisions in the decades ahead. Too often, decisions shaping the direction of research and development in the nuclear sector are made as part of a strategy for eventual deployment. As such small research capacities can become confused with multi-billion dollar plans and stall as a result. Relatively modest research and development can, however, provide us with important options for the future. Such research and development capacities need to be developed now if they are to be ready when needed. While some good measures are already underway, the possible challenge ahead motivates even greater efforts."

To listen to an interview with Dr Nuttall, please follow the link on the upper right hand of the page.

Scientists from the ̽��ֱ�� of Cambridge and Imperial College London today outlined a 20-year master plan for the global renaissance of nuclear energy. Their research was published in the latest issue of the journal.

Too often, decisions shaping the direction of research and development in the nuclear sector are made as part of a strategy for eventual deployment.

Dr William Nuttall

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New kids on the block

bjb42 — Thu, 08 Jul 2010 00:00:00 +0000

Writing in the book New Powers, ̽��ֱ�� of Cambridge researcher Dr. Amrita Narlikar argues that the negotiation behaviour of these three emerging giants could act as an early warning system for diplomats, enabling countries like the US to better understand and handle them.

China, India and Brazil are all expected to rank within the world's top five economies by 2050. All three, however, also sit outside the circle of liberal, western powers which has dictated the course of international politics since the end of the Cold War.

Potentially, each could challenge the existing international order, and the rules and organisations that underpin it, and thereby pose a threat to international peace and stability.

Their intentions, however, remain obscure. ̽��ֱ��study argues that any new power will temper its diplomacy while still rising in an effort to gain acceptance on the world stage. At the same time, however, it suggests that by forensically examining their negotiating behaviour, clues emerge about what kind of great power each of China, India and Brazil will be.

"Rather than attempting to make educated guesses and predictions about these powers' future behaviour, we should be examining the methods that they are using to negotiate their way to the core of the international system," Dr. Narlikar said. "If correct, this research suggests that so far the established powers in the west have not negotiated correctly with any of the three."

̽��ֱ��study examines the negotiating approach of each of the three emerging powers, with particular emphasis on recent talks such as the Doha Development Round, or the UN Climate Change Conference at Copenhagen in December 2009.

It offers an analysis not just of each country's strategy, but also the basis on which it forms coalitions, the way in which its arguments are framed and the willingness or otherwise it has shown to lead on issues of international importance.

Among other recommendations, it suggests that the west should be moving towards a policy of "containment, rather than engagement" with China, which, it argues, will pose perhaps the biggest challenge to the existing international order in the future.

For some, China's high levels of military spending, economic growth and different political system already provide cause for alarm. Typically, however, the west has sought to handle its emergence by engaging it, for example, by giving it a seat on the UN Security Council, or in a variety of bilateral discussions with the US.

Dr. Narlikar suggests that the reason for this may be that since the 1970s, China has generally acted with "quiet restraint" on the international stage - a strategy which has made it appear more moderate than countries such as India, which has a longer record of blocking international agreements.

That position could, however, be changing. ̽��ֱ��study documents how in the past few years China's tactics have become more heavy-handed, pointing to examples such as the increasingly liberal use of its veto on the UN Security Council, its intransigence at the Copenhagen summit, and its supply of aid to African countries in a manner that appears to rival openly existing international development systems.

"China's recent negotiating behaviour discloses revisionist intentions, in contrast to cautious hedging in the past," Dr. Narlikar writes. "It allows established powers greater reason to pursue containment rather than engagement. Insofar as China's power is only growing, containment today is likely to be less costly than containment tomorrow."

By contrast, the study sees India as characteristically argumentative on the international stage, not least because its domestic political culture rewards its politicians for standing up to the west and its legitimacy rests on the support of smaller, developing countries.

While this may explain India's "just say no" stance on issues such as climate change, the book also indicates that both India and the West need to change their approach. India, it suggests, will secure greater acceptance at the global high table by leading more balanced negotiations internationally and regionally. ̽��ֱ��West, which has shown a preparedness to bend rules to accommodate India, should be demanding more concessions from it in return.

Brazil emerges as the one power among the three whose negotiation style exhibits a consistent willingness to act as an engaged and co-operative member of the international community.

Dr. Narlikar suggests that the time has come to engage it more seriously, rather than treating it as a "pushover" because it does not pose a threat to the existing order. Doing more to accommodate Brazil, she adds, for example by granting it a much-coveted seat on the UN Security Council, would legitimise and strengthen existing forms of international governance, and send out powerful signals to India and China as they strive for similar levels of acceptance.

New Powers; how to become one and how to manage them, by Dr. Amrita Narlikar, is published by C. Hurst & Co. on Thursday, July 8th.

̽��ֱ��negotiating styles of the world’s biggest rising powers – China, India and Brazil – could offer important clues about any future challenge they may pose to international stability, a new study suggests.

If correct, this research suggests that so far the established powers in the west have not negotiated correctly with any of the three.

Dr. Amrita Narlikar

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̽��ֱ��1972 Munich Olympics and the Making of Modern Germany

bjb42 — Sat, 01 May 2010 00:00:00 +0000

̽��ֱ��staging of an Olympic Games is both a formidable task and an exciting opportunity, not least because it firmly places the host nation on the world stage. Take the 2010 Olympic Winter Games in Vancouver, Canada – an event that was viewed by some 3.5 billion people, more than half the world’s population. In effect, the event is a chance for the host country to promote itself globally.

Perhaps one Games above all others in the last century was imbued by a particular eagerness to present a national identity afresh to the world and to erase past memories: the 1972 Olympic Games in Munich. As events transpired, it is almost exclusively remembered for a very different reason – the murder of 11 members of the Israeli Olympic team by the terrorist group Black September. Yet, this tragedy is only part of the story of the Munich Games.

Although some aspects of the 1972 Games have received academic attention, most notably from scholars of terrorism, there has been a major gap in research that uses the Games as a case study to highlight broader historical currents in Germany. As a topic, the Munich Games lies neatly at the intersection between my research interests in Germany and in sports history and so, a few years ago, I set out with historian Dr Kay Schiller from the ̽��ֱ�� of Durham to provide the first cultural and political history of the Munich Olympics. ̽��ֱ��resulting book, ̽��ֱ��1972 Munich Olympics and the Making of Modern Germany, seeks not only to explain the significance of the event in modern German history, but also to ask why such great store was set on hopes for its success.

Archives and oral histories

With funding from the British Academy, the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation and the Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC), I was able to delve into documents, most of which had only recently become available, held in archives around the world.

̽��ֱ��research reached from the federal archives in Koblenz and Berlin to the Bavarian State Archives and the city archive in Munich, from the research libraries at the International Olympic Committee (IOC) in Lausanne to the Amateur Athletics Foundation in Los Angeles, and even to the archive held at the ̽��ֱ�� of Illinois relating to Avery Brundage, the IOC President who controversially decided to continue the Munich Games following the terrorist attack.

Supplementing the investigations was an array of oral history sources gained from interviews of political and societal figures involved with the planning and staging of the Games. These included Hans-Jochen Vogel, the Mayor of Munich at the time, members of the Organizing Committee for the Games, participating athletes, an Israeli survivor of the terrorist attack and the now deceased Markus Wolf, formerly the head of foreign operations at the East German Stasi security service.

Showcasing a modern Germany

Much of the research focused on the years leading up to the ’72 Games. ̽��ֱ��Federal Republic of Germany was at a crossroads in the mid-1960s, still under the shadow of World War II but viewing the future with optimism. In the seven years between being chosen as host and staging the event itself, Germany experienced favourable economic conditions and a belief in technocratic optimism, but was equally marked by national and international debate and dispute.

Against this background, the symbolic potential of the Games did not escape the organisers of the Munich Olympics, who took just one month in 1965 to secure promises of funding from the city of Munich, the Bavarian State and the Federal Government. Hosting the Games was deemed to be of immense importance. As Chancellor Willy Brandt put it succinctly, Munich 1972 was to serve as a ‘showcase of modern Germany’, a chance to replace memories of the Third Reich with images of a thriving and prosperous Federal Republic, an opportunity to present an optimistic Germany to the world through its ‘Happy Games’ – its official motto.

In the end, the hopes were shattered by the horrific terrorist attack in the early hours of 5 September. As on 11 September 2001, the world had been caught off-guard and unawares, and the Munich organisers, from the chief committee members down to the hundreds of stadium hostesses who had welcomed the international community to Germany, saw the life seep out of their Games overnight. Years of effort now left a dubious legacy and, more immediately, the Federal Republic was plunged into months of diplomatic firefighting with Israel and the Arab world.

Into the melting pot

It’s impossible to write such a book without combining perspectives of political, social, cultural and urban history. As a result, ̽��ֱ��1972 Munich Olympics and the Making of Modern Germany is really about a nation’s handling of a melting pot of issues: Germany’s urban, regional and national identity; intergenerational conflict and social transformation; ideologies of the past; political and diplomatic disputes; architectural visions and ceremonial imaginations; terrorism and security; East and West Germany; and Israeli–Arab relations.

At the same time, however, it’s a book about sport or, more accurately, about sport’s slippery nature as a phenomenon that is both apolitical and deeply rooted in political discourse. To take one example: even for an event that claimed its legitimacy through an Olympic tradition reaching back to antiquity, it was impossible to make a complete break with the political past – ‘Hitler’s Games’ of 1936 loomed large over the ’72 Games.

A question of sport

Until this research project, apart from the extensively studied inaugural Athens Games of 1896 and the Nazi-influenced Berlin Games of 1936, there had been virtually no attempt within sports historiography to write comprehensively about the impact of individual Games on their respective host nations. Remarkably, there has also been no general account of the modern history of European sport from a comparative and international perspective. This is the case despite sport being such a central cultural feature of European life, both as a participant activity and as a spectator entertainment.

To remedy this situation, an AHRC-funded Network entitled Sport in Modern Europe has begun the first comprehensive historical analysis in this area. ̽��ֱ��overarching aim of the research network, which is led by Cambridge, together with academic partners at the ̽��ֱ�� of Brighton and De Montfort ̽��ֱ��, is to establish the central themes for the writing of a history of modern European sport. At a series of three international workshops, colleagues from around the world have been looking both comparatively and chronologically at sport, encompassing the elite diffusion of British sport in the late 19th and early 20th centuries as well as its modern-day democratisation, and exploring the problems associated with defining a distinctive European model of sport.

For me, moving from an in-depth analysis of the Munich Games to a broader outlook on European sport has been an enrichingtour d’horizon– and the work is only just beginning.

For more information, please contact the author Dr Chris Young (cjy1000@cam.ac.uk) at the Department of German and Dutch, or visit the Sport in Modern Europe Network.

A new analysis of the Munich Games of 1972 places the event at the very centre of modern German history, as Dr Chris Young explains.

Public conflicts arose over political ideology, culture and the legacy of the German past, and foreign policy shifts impacted in intricate ways on East–West German relations.

Alexandra Young

1972 Munich Olympic Stadium

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