‘European defence before and after the "turn of the tide"’

Review essay on recent literature on the transformation of European security politics in the 1980s

Political instability and the persistence of religion in Greece: the policy implications of the cultural defence paradigm

This paper examines the implications of ‘cultural defence’ in the nature of democracy and the stability of the political system in Greece. It focuses on the Greek Orthodox Church’s maintenance of power and political relevance by virtue of its strong link to national identity. We argue that the inhibition of secularization in Greece as a result of cultural defence has significant policy implications, especially in times of crises, when the role of nationalism as a cohesive factor against perceived threats is intensified. The paper further explores three policy/politics areas: (1) political orientation; (2) religious pluralism; and (3) education.

Military targeting in the context of self-defence actions

In order to bring conceptual clarity to a particular dimension of the relationship between the jus ad bellum and the jus in bello regimes, this article explores the independent sources of a military targeting rule in both branches of international law. The aim is not to displace the jus in bello as the ‘lead’ regime on how targeting decisions must be made, or to undermine the traditional separation between these regimes. Rather, conceptual light is shed on a sometimes assumed but generally neglected dimension of the jus ad bellum’s necessity and proportionality criteria that may, in limited circumstances, have significance for our understanding of human protection during war, by covering possible gaps in the jus in bello targeting rules.

The 'ratione temporis' elements of self-defence

This article focuses on one particular factor that is of crucial importance to all self-defence actions. It is a factor that is almost always present in the application and appraisal of the right, but one that is not always explicitly engaged with: time. There are various ratione temporis elements underpinning the lawful exercise of the right of self-defence, and questions related to the timing of both an attack being responded to in self-defence and the response itself are notably controversial. The self-defence timeline is therefore charted, and the key legal debates encountered along its trajectory are identified. In particular, there is a focus on three temporal ‘stages’ of the right of self-defence: (i) the much-debated question of preventative forms of self-defence (the ‘before’); (ii) the timeliness of a state's defensive action, or what is sometimes called the need for the response to be ‘immediate’ (the ‘during’); and (iii) the duration of self-defence actions, including the crucial issue of when they must end (the ‘after’). The aim of this article is not to break new substantive ground with regard to these ‘stages’ as such, but is, rather, to draw together the temporal strands of self-defence in a more focused manner than is often the case in the literature.

Early changes in apoplast composition associated with defence and disease in interactions between Phaseolus vulgaris and the halo blight pathogen Pseudomonas syringae pv. phaseolicola

The apoplast is the arena in which endophytic pathogens such as Pseudomonas syringae grow and interact with plant cells. Using metabolomic and ion analysis techniques, this study shows how the composition of Phaseolus vulgaris leaf apoplastic fluid changes during the first six hours of compatible and incompatible interactions with two strains of Pseudomonas syringae pv. phaseolicola (Pph) that differ in the presence of the genomic island PPHGI-1. Leaf inoculation with the avirulent island-carrying strain Pph 1302A elicited effector-triggered immunity (ETI) and resulted in specific changes in apoplast composition, including increases in conductivity, pH, citrate, γ-aminobutyrate (GABA) and K+, that are linked to the onset of plant defence responses. Other apoplastic changes, including increases in Ca2+, Fe2/3+ Mg2+, sucrose, β-cyanoalanine and several amino acids, occurred to a relatively similar extent in interactions with both Pph 1302A and the virulent, island-less strain Pph RJ3. Metabolic footprinting experiments established that Pph preferentially metabolizes malate, glucose and glutamate, but excludes certain other abundant apoplastic metabolites, including citrate and GABA, until preferred metabolites are depleted. These results demonstrate that Pph is well-adapted to the leaf apoplast metabolic environment and that loss of PPHGI-1 enables Pph to avoid changes in apoplast composition linked to plant defences.