Frontline Magazine November 2011 | General Studies Online Notes


United States Africa Command
The United States Africa Command (USAFRICOM or AFRICOM) is one of nine Unified Combatant Commands of the United States Armed Forces, headquartered at Kelley Barracks, Stuttgart, Germany. It is responsible for U.S. military operations and military relations with 53 African nations – an area of responsibility covering all of Africa except Egypt. AFRICOM provides billions of dollars worth of equipment to the armies of countries that are friendly to the U.S. The U.S. military is already helping counter-insurgency operations in Mali and Niger, where the marginalised Tuareg ethnic group has raised the banner of revolt. “With Libya secure, an American invasion of Africa is under way,” observed John Pilger in a recent article. AFRICOM played an important behind-the-scenes role in planning the U.S./NATO bombing of Libya. U.S. Special Forces teamed up with its counterparts from France and the United Kingdom to arm and organise the ragtag rebel forces into a fighting unit. It was the coordinated air strikes, coupled with an amphibious operation led by the U.S., that finally led to the fall of Tripoli.

Responsibility to protect (R2P) Doctrine
The responsibility to protect (RtoP or R2P) is a norm or set of principles based on the idea that sovereignty is not a privilege, but a responsibility. R2P focuses on preventing and halting four crimes: genocide, war crimes, crimes against humanity, and ethnic cleansing, which it places under the generic umbrella term of, "Mass Atrocity Crimes". The responsibility to protect can be thought of as having three parts.
1. A State has a responsibility to protect its population from genocide, war crimes, crimes against humanity and ethnic cleansing (mass atrocities).
2. If the State is unable to protect its population on its own, the international community has a responsibility to assist the state by building its capacity. This can mean building early-warning capabilities, mediating conflicts between political parties, strengthening the security sector, mobilizing standby forces, and many other actions.
3. If a State is manifestly failing to protect its citizens from mass atrocities and peaceful measures are not working, the international community has the responsibility to intervene at first diplomatically, then more coercively, and as a last resort, with military force.
NATO is using this policy to intervene the middle-east contries like Libiya, Syria etc. 

Lord's Resistance Army
Lord's Resistance Army (LRA), led by Joseph Kony, is one of the most feared guerrilla groups operating in South Sudan and Uganda. In early October, a few days before the fall of Sirte and the killing of Muammar Qaddafi, Barrak Obama ordered the despatch of 100 U.S. Special Forces troops to Uganda. He said the decision to send the troops was taken to help Yoweri Museveni (President of Uganda), defeat the Lord's Resistance Army (LRA), which was engaged in a guerilla war with the central government in Kampala. Obama told Congress that the troops were deployed in order “to assist African forces in the removal of Joseph Koni and the LRA leadership from the battlefield”. Museveni, one of Africa's long-serving authoritarian rulers, was a one-time friend of Qaddafi. Qaddafi had extended support to the rebel army that brought Museveni to power in 1986. After coming to power, Museveni became one of the trusted allies of the West and was regularly feted at the White House. 

Human Papillomavirus
Human papillomavirus (HPV) is a member of the papillomavirus family of viruses that is capable of infecting humans. It can lead to cancers of the cervix, vulva, vagina, and anus in women or cancers of the anus and penis in men. It can also cause cancers of the head and neck (tongue, tonsils and throat).In 2010, an ambitious, population-based, post-licensure study of the effectiveness of the human papillomavirus (HPV) vaccine to prevent cervical cancer conducted in selected districts of Andhra Pradesh and Gujarat by PATH, an international non-governmental organisation, ran aground following the death of seven girls.
The Rs.250-million project, titled “HPV Vaccine: Evidence for Impact”, was funded by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. The vaccine for the project came as donations from GlaxoSmithKline and Merck Sharp & Dohme.

Mercury and Earth
It is the only planet within three billion kilometres of the earth not to have been orbited by a spacecraft until recently, and with good reason, for Mercury is a tricky place for a spacecraft to visit. The main stumbling block is that reaching Mercury requires a complex trajectory designed to decelerate a spacecraft.the only spacecraft to have achieved this feat, which was a monument to human ingenuity, was Mariner 10. It flew past Mercury three times between March 1974 and March 1975.
New Mercury voyage :  New endeavour is a spacecraft named MESSENGER (MErcury Surface, Space ENvironment, GEochemistry and Ranging). Launched by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) of the United States in August 2004, MESSENGER lowered its velocity and currenlty orbiting mercury. 

2011 Libyan civil war
The 2011 Libyan civil war was an armed conflict in Libya, fought between forces loyal to Colonel Muammar Gaddafi and those seeking to oust his government.The war was preceded by protests in Benghazi (Benghazi uprising) beginning on February 2011, which led to clashes with security forces that fired on the crowd. The protests escalated into a rebellion that spread across the country, with the forces opposing Gaddafi establishing an interim governing body, the National Transitional Council. The United Nations Security Council passed an initial resolution in late February, freezing the assets of Gaddafi and his inner circle and restricting their travel, and referred the matter to the International Criminal Court for investigation. In September 2011, the National Transitional Council was recognised by the United Nations as the legal representative of Libya, replacing the Gaddafi government. Muammar Gaddafi was captured and killed in October 20, 2011.

The Green Book
The Green Book is a short book setting out the political philosophy of the former Libyan leader, Muammar Gaddafi. The book was first published in 1975. It was "intended to be required reading for all Libyans". Muammar Gaddafi became the de-facto ruler of Libya after he led a military coup that overthrew King Idris I in 1969. He abolished the Libyan Constitution of 1951, and adopted laws based on his own ideology outlined in his manifesto The Green Book. 

Operation Odyssey Dawn and Operation Unified Protector
Operation Odyssey Dawn was the U.S. code name for the US part of the international military operation in Libya to enforce United Nations Security Council Resolution 1973. during the initial period of 19–31 March 2011, which continued afterwards under NATO command as Operation Unified Protector. 

Oslo Accords
The Oslo Accords was an attempt to resolve the ongoing Palestinian-Israeli conflict. It was the first direct, face-to-face agreement between the government of Israel and the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO). It was intended to be the one framework for future negotiations and relations between the Israeli government and Palestinians, within which all outstanding issues between the two sides would be addressed and resolved.

Based on Frontline, Nov 05 - 18, 2011 Edition

0 comments: