Doctrine

About: Doctrine is a research topic. Over the lifetime, 21901 publications have been published within this topic receiving 204282 citations.

Earth First!: Environmental Apocalypse

Abstract: This text examines the doctrine of Earth First!, the environmental movement whose tactics include unorthodox activities. The background, economic status and members of the organization of the movement are included here, along with details of the F.B.I. investigation which occurred.

Does Strengthening Self-Defense Law Deter Crime or Escalate Violence?: Evidence from Expansions to Castle Doctrine

Abstract: From 2000 to 2010, more than 20 states passed so-called "Castle Doctrine" or "stand your ground" laws. These laws expand the legal justification for the use of lethal force in self-defense, thereby lowering the expected cost of using lethal force and increasing the expected cost of committing violent crime. This paper exploits the within-state variation in self-defense law to examine their effect on homicides and violent crime. Results indicate the laws do not deter burglary, robbery, or aggravated assault. In contrast, they lead to a statistically significant 8 percent net increase in the number of reported murders and nonnegligent manslaughters.

Some thoughts about retributivism

Abstract: The quotations above illustrate a dramatic change in the regard in which courts and legislators hold the doctrine of retributivism. That doctrine, seemingly rejected by the Supreme Court a century ago, is today the official basis for penal policy in the nation's most populous state and an acceptable basis on which to send convicts to their deaths. This shift on the part of official legal sentiment parallels a shift in the views of philosophers and legal scholars. Fifty years ago a defender of retributivism acknowledged the general belief "that the retributive view is the only moral theory except perhaps psychological hedonism which has been definitely destroyed by criticism."1 Contemporary scholars assert, however, that retributivism is no longer "the poor relation in the family of theories of punishment" but "seems to be in the ascendant,"2 and in particular "has replaced rehabilitation as the conventional justification for the amount of punishment."3

Externalizing the burden of war: the Obama Doctrine and US foreign policy in the Middle East

Abstract: In the aftermath of the Arab Spring the Middle East has plunged into a state of instability. The United States has responded to these rising insecurities in a region of strategic importance with hesitation or half-hearted commitments. The Obama administration, plagued by the increasingly difficult decision of defining America's role in an apolar world while managing the political and economic legacy of the Bush administration, has relied on a policy of delegation. Obama neither refrained from military options nor showed any willingness to commit American ground troops to one of the strategically and operationally most complex environments of the world. Instead, Obama's preferred way of war is one relying on surrogates—both human and technological—that allow the United States to externalize, partially or wholly, the strategic, operational and tactical burden of warfare. Unlike any other previous US administration surrogate warfare has become the principal means of protecting US interests in the Middle East that are perceived to be all but vital. The need for deniability and legitimacy, cost–benefit considerations as well as the lack of capability have made warfare by surrogate a preferred option in the Middle East. The consequences for US policy in the region are profound, as the lack of control and oversight have empowered surrogates whose long-term interests are not compatible with those of the United States. More severely, the US might have jeopardized its standing as the traditional guarantor of security in the Middle East— something that partners and adversaries alike have exploited.