tag:theconversation.com,2011:/us/topics/combat-1547/articles
Combat – The Conversation
2023-10-24T23:11:48Z
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/216317
2023-10-24T23:11:48Z
2023-10-24T23:11:48Z
Israeli invasion of Gaza likely to resemble past difficult battles in Iraq and Syria
<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/555661/original/file-20231024-29-q1jiq8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C12%2C8256%2C5475&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Armored Israeli military vehicles maneuver near Israel's border with Gaza.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/israeli-military-armoured-vehicles-and-tanks-deploy-along-news-photo/1742240506">Aris Messinis/AFP via Getty Images</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Israel appears to be preparing for the next phase of its military operation: a ground campaign to “<a href="https://chicago.suntimes.com/2023/10/11/23913488/israel-hamas-attack-gaza-netanyahu-middle-east-war-netanyahu">crush and destroy</a>” Hamas, as Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has put it. </p>
<p>Israel has signaled that it might be <a href="https://www.axios.com/2023/10/24/israel-hostages-delay-invasion-gaza-hamas">willing to delay an invasion</a> – but not call it off entirely – if Hamas releases more hostages. But that means an invasion is still very likely, which raises questions about how Hamas has prepared for a ground invasion and whether Israel is prepared for what could be a long, drawn-out fight.</p>
<p>Prior ground attacks from Israel into the Gaza Strip have been dangerous, deadly and costly for both sides. </p>
<p>The most recent significant ground campaign, known in Israel as <a href="https://imeu.org/article/operation-cast-lead">Operation Cast Lead</a>, occurred over a three-week period from December 2008 to January 2009. </p>
<p><a href="https://www.idf.il/en/mini-sites/wars-and-operations/operation-cast-lead/">According to the Israeli military</a>, that operation was launched to strike the Hamas infrastructure that enabled its terrorist and rocket attacks against Israel. In that battle, thousands of Israeli troops fought Hamas fighters, with an Israeli cease-fire declared on Jan. 17, 2009. <a href="https://time.com/3035937/gaza-israel-hamas-palestinian-casualties/">According to some accounts</a>, losses in that operation totaled at least 13 Israeli military fatalities, 600 to 700 Hamas deaths and over 1,400 dead Palestinian civilians in Gaza.</p>
<p>Since that conflict, up until the horrific Hamas attacks of Oct. 7, 2023, <a href="https://www.ochaopt.org/data/casualties">Israeli operations in Gaza</a> have mostly involved airstrikes against Hamas, hitting targets in the Gaza Strip. In the wake of the Oct. 7 attacks, Israel has stepped up airstrikes, but also <a href="https://www.cfr.org/in-brief/israels-ground-war-against-hamas-what-know">massed troops, tanks and other equipment</a> on its border with Gaza. </p>
<p>The international community also expects a ground invasion. Former <a href="https://www.axios.com/2023/10/23/obama-israeli-operation-in-gaza-may-backfire-if-civilians-arent-protected">U.S. President Barack Obama has said an Israeli ground operation could “backfire”</a> if civilians aren’t adequately protected. </p>
<p>Hamas has been guarded about its own details, but says it has <a href="https://www.reuters.com/world/middle-east/how-hamas-secretly-built-mini-army-fight-israel-2023-10-13/">prepared, with Iranian support</a>, not only for the Oct. 7 attacks but also to respond to an Israeli ground campaign – including taking action outside the Gaza Strip if there is an invasion.</p>
<p>As a former U.S. government intelligence and counterterrorism senior official, who now <a href="https://fordschool.umich.edu/faculty/javed-ali">teaches about those topics and national security</a>, I expect that once combat begins, fighting will be intense. The conflict will likely resemble heavy urban fighting similar to other battles over the past 20 years elsewhere in the Middle East against Iraqi militants and the Islamic State group – and very different from the more limited engagements Israel has attempted in Gaza up until now.</p>
<p>Combat operations in densely packed urban environments are <a href="https://mwi.westpoint.edu/the-eight-rules-of-urban-warfare-and-why-we-must-work-to-change-them/">among the most complex</a> for military planners and the troops who have to fight in them for a variety of reasons. The physical space is dense, with above-ground structures or subterranean networks that provide ample environments for fighters to attack, remain concealed or move without detection. There are narrow channels like alleyways or roads that military units have to navigate through. Large numbers of noncombatant civilians are also around. These factors can <a href="https://mwi.westpoint.edu/defending-the-city-an-overview-of-defensive-tactics-from-the-modern-history-of-urban-warfare/">complicate the ability of even the best-trained troops</a> to accomplish their objectives while also minimizing their risk. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/555663/original/file-20231024-27-yl856u.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Soldiers in camouflage move through a cityscape." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/555663/original/file-20231024-27-yl856u.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/555663/original/file-20231024-27-yl856u.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=406&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/555663/original/file-20231024-27-yl856u.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=406&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/555663/original/file-20231024-27-yl856u.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=406&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/555663/original/file-20231024-27-yl856u.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=510&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/555663/original/file-20231024-27-yl856u.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=510&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/555663/original/file-20231024-27-yl856u.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=510&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">U.S. Marines try to push into the center of Fallujah, Iraq, in November 2004, in what became known as the second battle of Fallujah.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://newsroom.ap.org/detail/IRAQFALLUJAH/a20dca3eade4da11af9f0014c2589dfb/photo">AP Photo/Anja Niedringhaus</a></span>
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</figure>
<h2>Nowhere for Hamas to go</h2>
<p>Though Israel estimates having killed more than <a href="https://www.nbcnews.com/news/world/hamas-fighters-bodies-israel-toll-gaza-ground-invasion-rcna119640">1,500 fighters</a> <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2023/oct/10/hamas-prepared-for-a-long-war-with-israel-as-concerns-for-hostages-in-gaza-grow">during and in the days immediately following</a> the Oct. 7 attacks, its military estimates that Hamas probably <a href="https://www.timesofisrael.com/senior-idf-commander-says-hamas-has-7000-rockets-dozens-of-drones/">has tens of thousands more</a> well-armed fighters in Gaza. </p>
<p>Hamas fighters have nowhere to fall back to in the face of an attack by Israel. The strip’s borders with Israel remain sealed, <a href="https://www.pbs.org/newshour/world/desperately-needed-aid-trickles-into-besieged-gaza-as-egypts-border-crossing-opens">with only limited openings at the Rafah crossing</a> with Egypt to allow for humanitarian aid to enter. Recently, Cindy McCain, head of the United Nations World Food Program, warned that the continued Israeli blockade around Gaza has pushed the civilian population there <a href="https://www.politico.eu/article/gaza-humanitarian-catastrophe-united-nations-warn-israel-prepare-ground-invasion/">into a grave humanitarian crisis</a>. But Egypt has been <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2023/10/13/middleeast/egypt-rafah-crossing-gaza-palestinians-mime-intl/index.html">reluctant to allow people through</a>, citing both <a href="https://apnews.com/article/palestinian-jordan-egypt-israel-refugee-502c06d004767d4b64848d878b66bd3d">humanitarian and foreign policy concerns</a>.</p>
<p>With nowhere to go, it is highly possible that Hamas will decide to stand and fight an Israeli invasion. At that point, Hamas will likely use suicide attackers and the weapons it has and can make – some combination of roadside bombs, booby traps, improvised explosive devices, <a href="https://apnews.com/article/israel-palestinians-hamas-north-korea-weapons-703e33663ea299f920d0d14039adfbb8">rocket-propelled grenades</a>, automatic weapons, mortars and snipers.</p>
<p>In addition, Hamas has built an <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2023/10/15/middleeast/hamas-tunnels-gaza-intl/index.html">extensive network of as many as 300 miles of underground tunnels</a> throughout Gaza, which its fighters will use to hide and travel in. The Israeli air campaign since Oct. 7 will also help Hamas, because it has destroyed buildings and created piles of rubble that have not yet been removed, making above-ground travel of Israeli forces difficult.</p>
<p>Israel will face further political and humanitarian risks because Hamas kidnapped <a href="https://www.reuters.com/world/middle-east/what-do-we-now-about-hamas-hostages-2023-10-19/">dozens of hostages</a> on Oct. 7, and their locations are unknown. Even if some are released before an invasion, Israeli attacks could injure or kill any who remain. And rescue operations would require precise intelligence and careful military planning to work in a very small physical area with widespread fighting. </p>
<p>Israeli forces have not faced these conditions often or for very long in the past, but other nations’ militaries have.</p>
<h2>The battles of Fallujah</h2>
<p>In 2004 and 2005, <a href="https://mwi.westpoint.edu/urban-warfare-case-study-6-first-battle-of-fallujah">thousands of U.S. Marines and troops</a> from other nations in an international coalition <a href="https://www.marinecorpstimes.com/news/your-marine-corps/2019/11/28/the-second-battle-of-fallujah-15-years-later/">fought Iraqi insurgents and members of al-Qaida in Iraq</a> in Fallujah, Iraq.</p>
<p>While they inflicted significant losses on those adversaries, U.S. and allied troops also took heavy casualties. </p>
<p><a href="https://mwi.westpoint.edu/urban-warfare-case-study-6-first-battle-of-fallujah/">In the first battle of Fallujah</a> in early 2004, 38 U.S. troops were killed and at least 90 injured, with at least 200 al-Qaida or Iraqi insurgents killed and an unknown number of civilians killed or injured. <a href="https://mwi.westpoint.edu/urban-warfare-case-study-7-second-battle-of-fallujah/">In the second battle of Fallujah, later in 2004</a>, U.S. troops suffered 38 fatalities and 275 injured, with upward of 1,000 to 1,500 insurgents killed and another 1,500 injured. Combined, these were the two biggest urban battles for U.S. forces during the Iraq War.</p>
<p>In addition, much of the <a href="https://mwi.westpoint.edu/rebuilding-fallujah/">city of Fallujah, which once had a population of 250,000, was destroyed</a>, and required significant reconstruction efforts before residents could move back in – <a href="https://apnews.com/6c044247f6284a7d847ec8e846e82dc2">only to be displaced again</a> when the Islamic State group emerged and also fought there against the Iraqi government in the mid-2010s.</p>
<p>A decade later, U.S.-backed Syrian Democratic Forces and the Iraqi military took on fighters from the Islamic State group in Iraq and Syria, commonly known as ISIS, in cities like <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2019/03/23/middleeast/isis-caliphate-end-intl/index.html">Baghouz</a> and <a href="https://www.npr.org/sections/thetwo-way/2017/10/17/558271646/isis-makes-last-stand-at-a-stadium-in-raqqa-its-doomed-capital">Raaqa</a>, Syria, and <a href="https://www.cbsnews.com/news/isis-makes-bloody-last-stand-in-remaining-mosul-neighborhoods-under-its-control/">Mosul</a>, Iraq. Those fights resulted in <a href="https://theintercept.com/2021/07/15/american-isis-podcast/">tens of thousands of ISIS fighters killed or captured</a>. The survivors, having lost control of any territory, <a href="https://www.npr.org/2023/08/04/1192245987/where-is-isis-today">went into hiding</a>.</p>
<p>In these urban ground offensives against ISIS in Iraq and Syria, the losses for the <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2017/08/18/world/middleeast/iraq-tal-afar-isis-battle.html">Iraqi military</a> and <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20201112020634/https://www.almasdarnews.com/article/1200-isis-fighters-neutralized-raqqa-65-city-seized-kurdish-forces/">the Syrian Democratic Forces</a> were heavy, totaling over 1,000 for each of these forces. And just like in the battles in Fallujah, <a href="https://www.defenseone.com/feature/mosul-largest-battle-decade-future-of-war/">civilian deaths and injuries</a> also occurred in high numbers due to the intensity of the urban combat and its proximity to regular people trying to live their lives. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/555664/original/file-20231024-29-rh3el8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="People gather at the collapsed corner of a building." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/555664/original/file-20231024-29-rh3el8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/555664/original/file-20231024-29-rh3el8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=401&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/555664/original/file-20231024-29-rh3el8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=401&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/555664/original/file-20231024-29-rh3el8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=401&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/555664/original/file-20231024-29-rh3el8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=504&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/555664/original/file-20231024-29-rh3el8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=504&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/555664/original/file-20231024-29-rh3el8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=504&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Iraqis search through the rubble of a house destroyed in fighting in Fallujah in May 2004.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://newsroom.ap.org/detail/IRAQ/c148ac9560e4da11af9f0014c2589dfb/photo">AP Photo/Muhammed Muheisen</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Lessons for Israel?</h2>
<p>In late October 2023, the Pentagon dispatched <a href="https://www.timesofisrael.com/us-sends-senior-army-officers-to-israel-to-advise-idf-on-gaza-ground-operation-plans/">Marine Lt. Gen. James Glynn</a> and other military advisers to Israel to consult on plans for a ground operation in Gaza. </p>
<p><a href="https://apnews.com/article/israel-military-iran-navy-gaza-1a906598be5baccc614897768b1824a8">Glynn fought in Fallujah</a> and <a href="https://www.axios.com/2023/10/23/israel-gaza-war-marine-general-ground-operation">advised the Iraqi military</a> in its fight against the Islamic State group in Mosul. He was expected to offer advice based on his experience in protracted urban combat, including <a href="https://apnews.com/article/israel-military-iran-navy-gaza-1a906598be5baccc614897768b1824a8">ways to minimize civilian casualties</a>.</p>
<p>No one knows precisely how events will unfold in the coming days. If Israel does indeed mount a ground campaign, the resulting fight between the Israeli military and Hamas will almost certainly be violent and difficult. </p>
<p>Casualties on all sides of the conflict will be high, and will include innocent Palestinians who have not left the northern part of Gaza for the southern end of the strip, where <a href="https://www.reuters.com/world/middle-east/israel-says-aid-be-available-south-gaza-does-not-elaborate-2023-10-18/">humanitarian aid and relief</a> is beginning to arrive. The ensuing urban battles may resemble those in Fallujah in the mid-2000s or ISIS stand-offs a decade ago.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/216317/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Javed Ali does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>
Hamas and the international community expect Israel to invade the Gaza Strip. The battle will probably be more like recent Middle Eastern combat than Israel’s past fights with Palestinians.
Javed Ali, Associate Professor of Practice of Public Policy, University of Michigan
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/211406
2023-08-17T12:34:39Z
2023-08-17T12:34:39Z
What Elon Musk and Mark Zuckerberg’s canceled cage match says about masculine anxiety
<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/543092/original/file-20230816-17-330xso.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=8%2C26%2C5838%2C3699&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Would a fight help them prove to themselves that they are 'real men,' despite their soft − probably manicured − hands?</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/meta-and-threads-app-from-elon-musk-vs-mark-zuckerberg-seen-news-photo/1583887287?adppopup=true">Photo illustration by Jonathan Raa/NurPhoto via Getty Images</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>While the cage fight between Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg and Tesla CEO Elon Musk <a href="https://www.politico.eu/article/mark-zuckerberg-cancels-cage-fight-elon-musk-meta-threads-tesla/">seems to be on hold</a>, if these men do ever end up sparring, it’ll give a whole new meaning to the term “tech bro.”</p>
<p>The two billionaires’ business interests have butted heads in the past: Musk’s 2016 test launch of a <a href="https://time.com/4476416/mark-zuckerberg-elon-musk-rocket-explosion-satellite/">SpaceX rocket destroyed Zuckerberg’s US$200 million satellite</a>. In 2022, Musk said Zuckerberg <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2022/apr/15/elon-musk-mark-zuckerberg-sun-king-louis-xiv">shouldn’t dominate social media</a> and encouraged people to abandon Meta-owned Facebook. Meta also recently launched Threads, <a href="https://www.pbs.org/newshour/show/meta-launches-twitter-competitor-threads-as-zuckerberg-and-musk-rivalry-intensifies">which competes directly</a> with Musk’s X, formerly known as Twitter.</p>
<p>But threatening to beat the pulp out of each other represents a new – if not bizarre – form of one-upmanship for the two men. At one point, it was rumored that <a href="https://www.independent.co.uk/sport/ufc/musk-zuckerberg-fight-colosseum-ufc-b2390844.html">the livestreamed fight would take place in Rome’s Colosseum</a>, where gladiators once gruesomely battled to the death.</p>
<p>What in the name of <a href="https://gladiator.fandom.com/wiki/Maximus_Decimus_Meridius">Maximus</a> is going on?</p>
<p>Though Musk and Zuckerberg have attempted to frame their pugilistic pursuit as a once-in-a-generation event, they are far from alone. They join the ranks of other high-profile men in public and political positions who have shown off their physical strength to burnish their status.</p>
<p><a href="https://scholar.google.ca/citations?user=E4xQpIgAAAAJ&hl=en">As a gender scholar</a>, I’ve seen how these fights – let’s call them “performances of virility” – tend to coincide with beliefs that masculinity is either in crisis or under attack. </p>
<h2>Money can’t buy masculinity</h2>
<p>You don’t usually see two wealthy white billionaires duking it out. So what would Musk and Zuckerberg gain from fighting each other? </p>
<p>As sociologist Scott Melzer writes in his study of fight clubs, “<a href="https://www.rutgersuniversitypress.org/manhood-impossible/9780813584911">Manhood Impossible</a>,” fighting is culturally associated with masculinity, and U.S. culture celebrates men’s violence in the right contexts. </p>
<p>For white-collar white men, Melzer explains, fighting can help them to feel they have passed a test of adulthood and fulfilled the cultural requirement of strength. The fighting helps them prove to themselves that they are “real men,” despite their soft – probably manicured – hands.</p>
<p>To me, the chest puffing between Musk and Zuckerberg is a desperate display of masculinity for two tech nerds with deep pockets. They say money can’t buy happiness. Perhaps money can’t buy masculinity, either.</p>
<p>Kris Paap, author of “<a href="https://www.cornellpress.cornell.edu/book/9780801472862/working-construction/#bookTabs=1">Working Construction</a>,” explains that men who don’t take risks are often seen by their peers as weak and effeminate. Men who risk their health and well-being, on the other hand, prove their bravado for the respect of their peers. </p>
<p>This is particularly the case for working-class men. But politicians have also put on gloves to fight for admiration – and political clout – through displays of physical prowess.</p>
<p>In 2012, Justin Trudeau squared off against Senator Patrick Brazeau <a href="https://doi.org/10.1111/cars.12067">in a boxing match</a>. A member of Canada’s Parliament who came from money and political royalty, <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2016/apr/02/god-save-justin-trudeau-film-boxing-canada-patrick-brazeau">Trudeau declared before the match</a> that he was “put on this planet to do this … I fight – and I win.”</p>
<p>After emerging from the bout victorious, Trudeau’s image as a scrawny <a href="https://www.vulture.com/article/what-is-a-nepotism-baby.html">nepo baby</a> all but evaporated. Three years later, he became prime minister <a href="https://www.biography.com/political-figures/pierre-trudeau">just like his dad</a>.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="Cover of comic book depicts smiling man sitting in corner of boxing ring wearing boxing gloves and a red and white pinny with a maple leaf logo." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/543078/original/file-20230816-44322-afpteq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/543078/original/file-20230816-44322-afpteq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=399&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/543078/original/file-20230816-44322-afpteq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=399&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/543078/original/file-20230816-44322-afpteq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=399&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/543078/original/file-20230816-44322-afpteq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=501&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/543078/original/file-20230816-44322-afpteq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=501&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/543078/original/file-20230816-44322-afpteq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=501&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau appears as a boxer in a 2016 issue of the Marvel comic book series ‘Civil War II: Choosing Sides.’</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/the-cover-of-us-publisher-marvels-comic-book-featuring-news-photo/598119942?adppopup=true">Marc Brainbant/AFP via Getty Images</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>There are countless examples of other powerful men looking to showcase their virility. Russian President Vladimir Putin <a href="https://www.vox.com/2015/6/17/8796659/vladimir-putin-shirtless-video">infamously rode horses shirtless</a>, while U.S. President Joe Biden once said that when he was in high school, he <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2018/03/21/politics/joe-biden-donald-trump/index.html">would have taken Donald Trump “behind the gym and beat the hell” out of him</a>.</p>
<p>For almost two centuries, performances of masculinity – from William Henry Harrison to Donald Trump – have been a part of successful <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2015/09/04/opinions/bridges-trump-macho-candidates/index.html">U.S. presidential campaigns</a>.</p>
<h2>The end of men … again and again</h2>
<p>It is no coincidence that Musk vs. Zuckerberg comes at a time when there is popular perception that masculinity is in crisis. Women are <a href="https://www.pewresearch.org/short-reads/2021/11/08/whats-behind-the-growing-gap-between-men-and-women-in-college-completion/">obtaining college degrees at a faster clip than men</a>, while income gaps are closing. Suicides and overdoses among men – often termed <a href="https://www.nimh.nih.gov/health/statistics/suicide">“deaths of despair”</a> – are on the rise. </p>
<p>Belief in a <a href="https://www.routledge.com/Cultures-of-Masculinity/Edwards/p/book/9780415284813">“crisis of masculinity”</a> spikes during times of progressive social change. And proponents of this view tend to blame feminists and other social progressives for critiquing traditionally masculine mores and values, which, they claim, is <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2018/05/18/style/jordan-peterson-12-rules-for-life.html">causing men to spiral</a>.</p>
<p><a href="https://press.uchicago.edu/ucp/books/book/chicago/M/bo3683791.html">Gender scholars</a> point to the turn of the 20th century and the 1990s as other moments of social change that sparked similar anxieties.</p>
<p>In 1890, moves toward coeducation stoked debates around girls and boys being taught the same curriculum. Advocates suggested that sex shouldn’t matter in the classroom and that girls’ education should prepare them for jobs outside the home.</p>
<p>This didn’t go over well with men who benefited from gender segregation. The Boy Scouts of America actually emerged in 1910 so that boys were assured a space where girls and women weren’t allowed – and <a href="https://spssi.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1111/j.1540-4560.1978.tb02548.x">where boys would be “sufficiently” acquainted with masculinity</a>.</p>
<p>Similarly, the emergence of identity politics in the 1990s, which highlighted rights-based ideologies, scrutinized, in particular, <a href="http://cup.columbia.edu/book/marked-men/9780231112932">the privileges of white men</a>. </p>
<p>Today, social progress – whether it’s more women in the workplace, <a href="https://theconversation.com/a-record-breaking-number-of-women-were-elected-governor-in-2022-here-are-7-things-to-know-about-how-that-happened-195871">more women in political office</a> or girls permitted to join what is now referred to as <a href="https://www.cbsnews.com/news/boy-scouts-new-name-scouts-bsa-girls-joining-ranks/">“the Scouts”</a> – seems to stoke men’s insecurities. You can see it in the popularity of men’s rights advocates like Jordan Peterson, who claims men are being asked to <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EmKrEil9-Ag">castrate themselves</a> in the name of equality. And you can see it in conservative commentator Ben Shapiro’s <a href="https://www.them.us/story/barbie-movie-ben-shapiro">scorn toward</a> the “Barbie” movie, which has been lauded for calling out patriarchal values.</p>
<p>In these moments, men have historically taken predictable actions to reclaim the idea that they are inherently different from women – and thus belong in different spaces.</p>
<p>Sociologist <a href="https://www.routledge.com/The-Caveman-Mystique-Pop-Darwinism-and-the-Debates-Over-Sex-Violence/McCaughey/p/book/9780415934756">Martha McCaughey</a> has pointed out how evolutionary biology has become the popular way to argue that men just can’t help their “innate propensities.”</p>
<p>This includes the urge to dominate others, whether that’s in business, in bed – or, yes, in the ring.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/211406/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Kristen Barber does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>
‘Performances of virility’ tend to coincide with beliefs that masculinity is either in crisis or under attack.
Kristen Barber, Associate Professor of Race, Ethnic and Gender Studies, University of Missouri-Kansas City
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/189429
2022-08-26T12:19:56Z
2022-08-26T12:19:56Z
UN nuclear agency calls for protection zone around imperiled Ukrainian power plant – a safety expert explains why that could be crucial
<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/483071/original/file-20220906-22-a9szl3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C52%2C1022%2C714&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Damage at the Zaporizhzhya facility.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/iaea_imagebank/52328919198/">International Atomic Energy Agency</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/">CC BY-SA</a></span></figcaption></figure><p><em>The United Nations’ nuclear watchdog has <a href="https://apnews.com/article/russia-ukraine-united-nations-government-and-politics-d65a057bbb9dc1e59171fdad1fd3c3f0?utm_source=homepage&utm_medium=TopNews&utm_campaign=position_1">called on Russia and Ukraine</a> to set up a “safety and security protection zone” around the embattled Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Station in the Ukrainian city of Enerhodar. The plea, made on Sept. 6, 2022, by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), comes amid mounting concern that the facility – Europe’s largest nuclear power plant – is vulnerable to nearby fighting, and that damage to the site could cause a catastrophic accident.</em></p>
<p><em>Shelling has already <a href="https://www.iaea.org/newscenter/pressreleases/update-93-iaea-director-general-statement-on-situation-in-ukraine">damaged power and communication lines to the plant</a>, prompting <a href="https://www.reuters.com/world/europe/ukraine-nuclear-plant-escapes-meltdown-zelenskiy-says-moscow-kyiv-trade-blame-2022-08-25/">fears for the plant’s safety</a> and evoking painful memories in a country still scarred by the world’s worst nuclear accident, at Chernobyl in 1986.</em> </p>
<p><em>In addition, Russian authorities have <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2022/aug/24/revealed-russian-plan-to-disconnect-zaporizhzhia-nuclear-plant-from-grid">developed plans to disconnect the plant</a> from Ukraine’s power grid – in the event of damage to the plant, according to the Russians, as a prelude to switching the plant to the grid in Russian-occupied territory, according to the Ukrainians. Disconnecting the plant from the grid is a risky operation.</em></p>
<p><em>The Conversation asked <a href="https://sites.usc.edu/meshkati/">Najmedin Meshkati</a>, a professor and <a href="https://www.belfercenter.org/publication/thirty-three-years-catastrophe-chernobyl-universal-lesson-global-nuclear-power-industry">nuclear safety expert</a> at the University of Southern California, to explain the risks of warfare taking place in and around nuclear power plants.</em></p>
<h2>How safe was the Zaporizhzhia power plant before the Russian attack?</h2>
<p>The facility at Zaporizhzhia is the largest nuclear plant in Europe and one of the largest in the world. It has six <a href="https://www.nrc.gov/reactors/pwrs.html">pressurized water reactors</a>, which use water to both sustain the fission reaction and cool the reactor. These differ from the <a href="https://www.world-nuclear.org/information-library/nuclear-fuel-cycle/nuclear-power-reactors/appendices/rbmk-reactors.aspx">RBMK</a> reactors at Chernobyl, which used graphite instead of water to sustain the fission reaction. RBMK reactors are not seen as very safe, and there are <a href="https://www.world-nuclear.org/information-library/nuclear-fuel-cycle/nuclear-power-reactors/appendices/rbmk-reactors.aspx">only eight remaining in use</a> in the world, all in Russia.</p>
<p>The reactors at Zaporizhzhia are of moderately good design, and the plant has a decent safety record, with a good operating background.</p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/Qthg5xE196w?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
<figcaption><span class="caption">The Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant uses pressurized water reactors.</span></figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Ukrainian authorities tried to keep the war away from the site by asking Russia to observe a 30-kilometer (nearly 19-mile) safety buffer. But Russian troops surrounded the facility and <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2022/mar/04/zaporizhzhia-nuclear-power-plant-everything-you-need-to-know">seized it in March</a>.</p>
<h2>What are the risks to a nuclear plant in a conflict zone?</h2>
<p>Nuclear power plants are built for peacetime operations, not wars.</p>
<p>The worst thing that could happen is if a site is deliberately or accidentally shelled. If a shell hit the plant’s <a href="https://www.nrc.gov/waste/spent-fuel-storage/pools.html">spent fuel pool</a> – which contains the still-radioactive spent fuel – or if fire spread to the spent fuel pool, it could release radiation. This spent fuel pool isn’t in the containment building, and as such is more vulnerable.</p>
<p>Containment buildings, which house nuclear reactors, are also not protected against deliberate shelling. They are built to withstand a minor internal explosion of, say, a pressurized water pipe. But they are not designed to withstand a huge explosion.</p>
<p>As to the reactors in the containment building, it depends on the weapons being used. The worst-case scenario is that a bunker-buster missile breaches the containment dome – consisting of a thick shell of reinforced concrete on top of the reactor – and explodes. That would badly damage the nuclear reactor and release radiation into the atmosphere, which would make it difficult to send in first responders to contain any resulting fire. It could be another Chernobyl.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/481180/original/file-20220825-26-qlt1zq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="A soldier stands in the foreground as a half dozen people in hazmat suits and gas masks stand near stretchers outside a large tent" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/481180/original/file-20220825-26-qlt1zq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/481180/original/file-20220825-26-qlt1zq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/481180/original/file-20220825-26-qlt1zq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/481180/original/file-20220825-26-qlt1zq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/481180/original/file-20220825-26-qlt1zq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/481180/original/file-20220825-26-qlt1zq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/481180/original/file-20220825-26-qlt1zq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Ukrainian Emergency Ministry personnel conducted a drill in the city of Zaporizhzhia on Aug. 17, 2022, to prepare for a possible radiation leak from the nuclear power plant near the city.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/ukrainian-emergency-ministry-rescuers-attend-an-exercise-in-news-photo/1242554458">Photo by Dimitar Dilkoff/AFP via Getty Images</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>What are the concerns going forward?</h2>
<p>The safety problems I see are twofold:</p>
<p><strong>1) Human error</strong></p>
<p>The workers at the facility are working under incredible stress, <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2022/08/23/world/europe/ukraine-zaporizhzhia-nuclear-power-plant.html">reportedly at gunpoint</a>. Stress increases the chance of error and poor performance.</p>
<p>There is a human element in running a nuclear power plant – operators are the first and last layers of defense for the facility and the public. They are the first people to detect any anomaly and to stop any incident. Or if there’s an accident, they will be the first to heroically try to contain it.</p>
<p>This concern was highlighted in the International Atomic Energy Agency report, which noted that the Ukrainian staff at the plant were working under “constant high stress and pressure” – something that could have consequences for nuclear safety.</p>
<p><strong>2) Power failure</strong></p>
<p>The second problem is that the nuclear plant needs constant electricity, and that is harder to maintain in wartime.</p>
<p>Even if you shut down the reactors, the plant will need off-site power to run the huge cooling system to remove the residual heat in the reactor and bring it to what is called a <a href="http://neinuclearnotes.blogspot.com/2011/12/what-is-cold-shutdown.html">cold shutdown</a>. Water circulation is always needed to make sure the spent fuel doesn’t overheat.</p>
<p>Spent fuel pools also need constant water circulation to keep them cool, and they need cooling for several years before they can be put in dry casks. One of the problems in the 2011 <a href="https://theconversation.com/10-years-after-fukushima-safety-is-still-nuclear-powers-greatest-challenge-155541">Fukushima disaster</a> in Japan was the emergency generators intended to replace lost off-site power got inundated with water and failed. In situations like that, you get “<a href="https://allthingsnuclear.org/dlochbaum/nuclear-station-blackout/">station blackout</a>” – and that is one of the worst things that could happen. It means no electricity to run the cooling system.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/450128/original/file-20220304-21-hirerv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="hundreds of square openings lie at the bottom of a large pool of water in an industrial building" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/450128/original/file-20220304-21-hirerv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/450128/original/file-20220304-21-hirerv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=399&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/450128/original/file-20220304-21-hirerv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=399&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/450128/original/file-20220304-21-hirerv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=399&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/450128/original/file-20220304-21-hirerv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=502&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/450128/original/file-20220304-21-hirerv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=502&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/450128/original/file-20220304-21-hirerv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=502&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Spent nuclear fuel rods are stored at the bottom of this pool, which requires constant circulation.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/picture-shows-the-cooling-pool-of-the-switched-off-unit-1-news-photo/524200126">Guillaume Souvant/AFP via Getty Images</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>In that circumstance, the spent fuel overheats and its zirconium cladding can create hydrogen bubbles. If you can’t vent these bubbles, they will explode, spreading radiation.</p>
<p>If there is a loss of outside power, operators will have to rely on emergency generators. But emergency generators are huge machines – finicky, unreliable gas guzzlers. And you still need cooling waters for the generators themselves. </p>
<p>My biggest worry is that Ukraine suffers from a sustained power grid failure. The likelihood of this increases during a conflict because power line pylons may come down under shelling, or gas power plants might get damaged and cease to operate. And though Ukrainian intelligence services <a href="https://www.reuters.com/world/europe/ukraine-says-russia-plans-disconnect-nuclear-plants-blocks-grid-2022-08-19/">claim that the Russians intend to stockpile diesel fuel</a> to keep these emergency generators going, it is unlikely that Russian troops will have excess fuel given their need to fuel their own vehicles.</p>
<h2>How else does a war affect the safety of nuclear plants?</h2>
<p>One of the overarching concerns about the effects of war on nuclear plants is that war degrades <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK253947/">safety culture</a>, which is crucial in running a plant. I believe that safety culture is analogous to the human body’s immune system, which protects against pathogens and diseases. Safety culture is pervasive and has a widespread impact. “It can affect all elements in a system for good or ill,” <a href="https://www.safetymattersblog.com/2014/11/a-life-in-error-by-james-reason.html">according to</a> <a href="https://www.thebritishacademy.ac.uk/fellows/jim-reason-FBA/">psychologist James Reason</a>.</p>
<p>The tragic situation at the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant violates every universally accepted tenet of <a href="https://www.nrc.gov/docs/ML1500/ML15007A487.pdf">healthy nuclear safety culture</a>, especially the maintenance of an environment where personnel can raise safety concerns.</p>
<p>War adversely affects safety culture in a number of ways. Operators are stressed and fatigued and may be scared to death to speak out if something is going wrong. Then there is the maintenance of a plant, which may be compromised by lack of staff or unavailability of spare parts. </p>
<p>Governance, regulation and oversight – all crucial for the safe running of a nuclear industry – are also disrupted, as is local infrastructure, such as the capability of local firefighters. In war, everything is harder.</p>
<h2>So what can be done to better protect Ukraine’s nuclear power plants?</h2>
<p>The only solution is declaring a demilitarized zone around nuclear plants, similar to the the protection zone urged by the International Atomic Energy Agency. However, Russia has previously rejected United Nations Secretary General António Guterres’ <a href="https://press.un.org/en/2022/sc15003.doc.htm">plea for declaring a demilitarized zone around the plant</a>. </p>
<p>I believe an optimal though not ideal solution is to bring the two operating reactors to a cold shutdown before any further loss of off-site power and risk of station blackout, store more fuel for emergency diesel generators at different locations at the plant site, and keep only a skeleton caretaker staff to look after the spent fuel pools.</p>
<p>Admittedly, this is only a stopgap measure. In parallel with the International Atomic Energy Agency’s effort under the leadership of its Director, General Rafael Mariano Grossi, I believe that the U.N. Security Council should immediately empower a special commission to mediate between the warring parties. It could be modeled after the <a href="https://www.britannica.com/topic/United-Nations-Monitoring-Verification-and-Inspection-Commission">United Nations Monitoring, Verification and Inspection Commission</a> in 2000, and appoint a prominent, senior international statesman as its head. </p>
<p>I believe the person should be of the caliber and in the mold of the legendary former director general of the International Atomic Energy Agency, <a href="https://worldleaders.columbia.edu/directory/hans-blix">Hans Blix</a> of Sweden. Blix led the agency at the time of the Chernobyl accident in 1986 and commands respect in today’s Russia and Ukraine.</p>
<p>War, in my opinion, is the worst enemy of nuclear safety. This is an unprecedented and volatile situation. Only through active, pragmatic <a href="https://www.sciencediplomacy.org/sites/default/files/engineering_diplomacy_science__diplomacy.pdf">engineering and nuclear diplomacy</a> can an amenable and lasting solution to this vexing problem be found.</p>
<p><em>This is an updated version of <a href="https://theconversation.com/russian-troops-fought-for-control-of-a-nuclear-power-plant-in-ukraine-a-safety-expert-explains-how-warfare-and-nuclear-power-are-a-volatile-combination-178588">an article</a> originally published on March 4, 2022.</em></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/189429/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Najmedin Meshkati received research funding from the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission in mid-1990s.</span></em></p>
Artillery shelling, stressed-out technicians and power supply disruptions increase the chances of catastrophe at the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant, Europe’s largest.
Najmedin Meshkati, Professor of Engineering and International Relations, University of Southern California
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/178588
2022-03-04T23:36:53Z
2022-03-04T23:36:53Z
Russian troops fought for control of a nuclear power plant in Ukraine – a safety expert explains how warfare and nuclear power are a volatile combination
<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/450124/original/file-20220304-23-pfhpx5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C5%2C3442%2C2282&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Rafael Mariano Grossi, director general of the International Atomic Energy Agency, points to the training facility hit by Russian artillery at the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant. </span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://newsroom.ap.org/detail/AustriaNuclearRussiaUkraineWar/86fb83c01e9149b3a9bb7c09dccc0157/photo">AP Photo/Lisa Leutner</a></span></figcaption></figure><p><em>Russian forces have taken control of Europe’s largest nuclear power plant after <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2022/mar/04/zaporizhzhia-nuclear-power-plant-everything-you-need-to-know">shelling the Zaporizhzhia facility</a> in the Ukrainian city of Enerhodar.</em></p>
<p><em>The overnight assault caused a blaze at the facility, prompting fears over the safety of the plant and evoking painful memories in a country still scarred by the world’s worst nuclear accident, at Chernobyl in 1986. The site of that disaster is <a href="https://theconversation.com/military-action-in-radioactive-chernobyl-could-be-dangerous-for-people-and-the-environment-177992">also under Russian control</a> as of Feb. 24, 2022.</em> </p>
<p><em>On March 4, Ukrainian authorities <a href="https://www.iaea.org/newscenter/pressreleases/update-11-iaea-director-general-statement-on-situation-in-ukraine">reported to the International Atomic Energy Agency</a> that the fire at Zaporizhzhia had been extinguished and that Ukrainian employees were reportedly operating the plant under Russian orders. But safety concerns remain.</em></p>
<p><em>The Conversation asked <a href="https://sites.usc.edu/meshkati/">Najmedin Meshkati</a>, a professor and <a href="https://www.belfercenter.org/publication/thirty-three-years-catastrophe-chernobyl-universal-lesson-global-nuclear-power-industry">nuclear safety expert</a> at the University of Southern California, to explain the risks of warfare taking place in and around nuclear power plants.</em></p>
<h2>How safe was the Zaporizhzhia power plant before the Russian attack?</h2>
<p>The facility at Zaporizhzhia is the largest nuclear plant in Europe, and one of the largest in the world. It has six <a href="https://www.nrc.gov/reactors/pwrs.html">pressurized water reactors</a>, which use water to both sustain the fission reaction and cool the reactor. These differ from the <a href="https://www.world-nuclear.org/information-library/nuclear-fuel-cycle/nuclear-power-reactors/appendices/rbmk-reactors.aspx">reaktor bolshoy moshchnosty kanalny</a> reactors at Chernobyl, which used graphite instead of water to sustain the fission reaction. RBMK reactors are not seen as very safe, and there are <a href="https://www.world-nuclear.org/information-library/nuclear-fuel-cycle/nuclear-power-reactors/appendices/rbmk-reactors.aspx">only eight remaining in use</a> in the world, all in Russia.</p>
<p>The reactors at Zaporizhzhia are of moderately good design. And the plant has a decent safety record, with a good operating background.</p>
<p>Ukraine authorities tried to keep the war away from the site by asking Russia to observe a 30-kilometer safety buffer. But Russian troops surrounded the facility and then seized it.</p>
<h2>What are the risks to a nuclear plant in a conflict zone?</h2>
<p>Nuclear power plants are built for peacetime operations, not wars.</p>
<p>The worst thing that could happen is if a site is deliberately or accidentally shelled and the containment building – which houses the nuclear reactor – is hit. These containment buildings are not designed or built for deliberate shelling. They are built to withstand a minor internal explosion of, say, a pressurized water pipe. But they are not designed to withstand a huge explosion.</p>
<p>It is not known whether the Russian forces deliberately shelled the Zaporizhzhia plant. It may have been inadvertent, caused by a stray missile. But we do know they wanted to capture the plant.</p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/kK7xG_Q0Tkg?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
<figcaption><span class="caption">Tracer rounds and flames can be seen in this video of the fight for control of the nuclear power plant.</span></figcaption>
</figure>
<p>If a shell hit the plant’s <a href="https://www.nrc.gov/waste/spent-fuel-storage/pools.html">spent fuel pool</a> – which contains the still-radioactive spent fuel – or if fire spread to the spent fuel pool, it could release radiation. This spent fuel pool isn’t in the containment building, and as such is more vulnerable.</p>
<p>As to the reactors in the containment building, it depends on the weapons being used. The worst-case scenario is that a bunker-buster missile breaches the containment dome – consisting of a thick shell of reinforced concrete on top of the reactor – and explodes. That would badly damage the nuclear reactor and release radiation into the atmosphere. And because of any resulting fire, sending in firefighters would be difficult. It could be another Chernobyl.</p>
<h2>What are the concerns going forward?</h2>
<p>The biggest worry was not the fire at the facility. That did not affect the containment buildings and has been extinguished. </p>
<p>The safety problems I see now are twofold:</p>
<p><strong>1) Human error</strong></p>
<p>The workers at the facility are now working under incredible stress, <a href="https://www.cnn.com/europe/live-news/ukraine-russia-putin-news-03-04-22/h_1f73598a8edc48dcd10cea81c3c37be5">reportedly at gunpoint</a>. Stress increases the chance of error and poor performance.</p>
<p>One concern is that the workers will not be allowed to change shifts, meaning longer hours and tiredness. We know that a few days ago at Chernobyl, after the Russians took control of the site, they <a href="https://world-nuclear-news.org/Articles/IAEA-chief-warns-over-pressure-on-Ukraine-nuclear">did not allow employees</a> – who usually work in three shifts – to swap out. Instead, they took some workers hostage and didn’t allow the other workers to attend their shifts.</p>
<p>At Zaporizhzhia we may see the same.</p>
<p>There is a human element in running a nuclear power plant – operators are the first and last layers of defense for the facility and the public. They are the first people to detect any anomaly and to stop any incident. Or if there’s an accident, they will be the first to heroically try to contain it. </p>
<p><strong>2) Power failure</strong></p>
<p>The second problem is that the nuclear plant needs constant electricity, and that is harder to maintain in wartime.</p>
<p>Even if you shut down the reactors, the plant will need off-site power to run the huge cooling system to remove the residual heat in the reactor and bring it to what is called a “cold shutdown.” Water circulation is always needed to make sure the spent fuel doesn’t overheat.</p>
<p>Spent fuel pools also need constant circulation of water to keep them cool. And they need cooling for several years before being put in dry casks. One of the problems in the 2011 <a href="https://theconversation.com/10-years-after-fukushima-safety-is-still-nuclear-powers-greatest-challenge-155541">Fukushima disaster</a> in Japan was the emergency generators, which replaced lost off-site power, got inundated with water and failed. In situations like that you get “<a href="https://allthingsnuclear.org/dlochbaum/nuclear-station-blackout/">station blackout</a>” – and that is one of the worst things that could happen. It means no electricity to run the cooling system. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/450128/original/file-20220304-21-hirerv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="hundreds of square openings lie at the bottom of a large pool of water in an industrial building" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/450128/original/file-20220304-21-hirerv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/450128/original/file-20220304-21-hirerv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=399&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/450128/original/file-20220304-21-hirerv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=399&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/450128/original/file-20220304-21-hirerv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=399&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/450128/original/file-20220304-21-hirerv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=502&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/450128/original/file-20220304-21-hirerv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=502&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/450128/original/file-20220304-21-hirerv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=502&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Spent nuclear fuel rods are stored at the bottom of this pool, which requires constant circulation.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/picture-shows-the-cooling-pool-of-the-switched-off-unit-1-news-photo/524200126">Guillaume Souvant/AFP via Getty Images</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>In that circumstance, the spent fuel overheats and its zirconium cladding can cause hydrogen bubbles. If you can’t vent these bubbles they will explode, spreading radiation.</p>
<p>If there is a loss of outside power, operators will have to rely on emergency generators. But emergency generators are huge machines – finicky, unreliable gas guzzlers. And you still need cooling waters for the generators themselves. </p>
<p>My biggest worry is that Ukraine suffers from a sustained power grid failure. The likelihood of this increases during a conflict, because pylons may come down under shelling or gas power plants might get damaged and cease to operate. And it is unlikely that Russian troops themselves will have fuel to keep these emergency generators going – they <a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-60596629">don’t seem to have enough fuel</a> to run their own personnel carriers.</p>
<h2>How else does a war affect the safety of nuclear plants?</h2>
<p>One of the overarching concerns is that war degrades <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK253947/">safety culture</a>, which is crucial in running a plant. I believe that safety culture is analogous to the human body’s immune system, which protects against pathogens and diseases; and because of the pervasive nature of safety culture and its widespread impact, according to <a href="https://www.thebritishacademy.ac.uk/fellows/jim-reason-FBA/">psychologist James Reason</a>, “<a href="https://www.safetymattersblog.com/2014/11/a-life-in-error-by-james-reason.html">it can affect all elements in a system for good or ill</a>.”</p>
<p>It is incumbent upon the leadership of the plant to strive for immunizing, protecting, maintaining and nurturing the healthy safety culture of the nuclear plant.</p>
<p>War adversely affects the safety culture in a number of ways. Operators are stressed and fatigued and may be scared to death to speak out if something is going wrong. Then there is the maintenance of a plant, which may be compromised by lack of staff or unavailability of spare parts. Governance, regulation and oversight – all crucial for the safe running of a nuclear industry – are also disrupted, as is local infrastructure, such as the capability of local firefighters. In normal times you might have been able to extinguish the fire at Zaporizhzhia in five minutes. But in war, everything is harder.</p>
<h2>So what can be done to better protect Ukraine’s nuclear power plants?</h2>
<p>This is an unprecedented and volatile situation. The only solution is a no-fight zone around nuclear plants. War, in my opinion, is the worst enemy of nuclear safety.</p>
<p>[<em>Over 150,000 readers rely on The Conversation’s newsletters to understand the world.</em> <a href="https://memberservices.theconversation.com/newsletters/?source=inline-150ksignup">Sign up today</a>.]</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/178588/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Najmedin Meshkati received research funding from the US Nuclear Regulatory Commission NRC in mid-1990s.</span></em></p>
The world held its collective breath as Russian troops battled Ukrainian forces at the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant. The battle is over and no radiation escaped, but the danger is far from over.
Najmedin Meshkati, Professor of Engineering and International Relations, University of Southern California
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/65663
2016-09-21T18:59:51Z
2016-09-21T18:59:51Z
You can thank our pre-mammalian ancestors for your sexy teeth
<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/138412/original/image-20160920-11127-lx5rs3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C49%2C650%2C406&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">This skull belongs to the carnivorous gorgonopsian therapsid Smilesaurus ferox which lived 255 million years ago</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Smilesaurus_skull.jpg">Cradle of Humankind/Flickr/Wikimedia</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/">CC BY-SA</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Next time you’re getting ready for a hot date and pause to flash a toothy grin at yourself in the mirror, thank your ancestors.</p>
<p>Mammals have a dentition divided into three distinct types of teeth.</p>
<p>There are large, sharp canines and next to them incisors. Behind them, in our cheeks, are teeth known as post-canine dentition. This separation has been traced back more than 300 million years when our ancestors still looked like huge reptiles. </p>
<p>These were the pre-mammalian <a href="http://www.newworldencyclopedia.org/entry/Therapsid">therapsids</a>. They had long, sometimes sabre-like canines. Scientists long thought that these sharp teeth were deadly hunting devices. But there was a problem: even herbivorous species of therapsid had sabre-like canines. Their chompers clearly weren’t for hunting prey. Some speculated that the canines in question might be for defence from predators.</p>
<p>Or were they actually used for sexual display? </p>
<p>Today, sabre-tooth mammals such as the walrus or the deer-like <a href="http://www.iucnredlist.org/details/42190/0">muntiac</a>, have their canines constantly on display. This allows them to seduce mates or intimidate their kin. That’s the modern situation. My colleagues and I <a href="http://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371%2Fjournal.pone.0161457">wanted to know</a> whether sexual selection was also an important phenomenon among our pre-mammalian ancestors.</p>
<p>The answer, <a href="http://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371%2Fjournal.pone.0161457">uncovered</a> by cutting edge technology and careful study, is “yes”.</p>
<h2>Putting therapsids under the microscope</h2>
<p>Our research involved a team of palaeontologists from the University of the Witwatersrand’s <a href="https://www.wits.ac.za/esi/">Evolutionary Studies Unit</a>; a group from the university’s <a href="https://www.wits.ac.za/anatomicalsciences/">School of Anatomical Sciences</a> and scientists from the <a href="http://www.esrf.eu/">European Synchrotron Radiation Facility</a> in Grenoble, France.</p>
<p>Our subject was a mysterious fossil therapsid, Choerosaurus dejageri. It is part of the Eutheriodontia family. Little is known about this mammal-like reptile that lived 259 million years ago and belonged to the lineage that gave birth to mammals. Choerosaurus is unique, as it’s the only Eutheriodont to have two symmetrical bosses: horn-like structures on its upper and lower jaws, the maxilla and mandible.</p>
<p>We wanted to figure out what these cranial bosses were for: combat or sexual display.</p>
<p>Only one Choerosaurus fossil has been found, on a farm near Beaufort West in South Africa: a delicate skull. We used X-ray computerised micro-tomographic, or microCT, on this fossil. We compared the scans with those from another therapsid, the monstruous dinocephalian Moschops. The Moschops is known to have head butted its enemies, so its skull and cranial bosses were obviously developed for high energy combat. </p>
<p>But the Choereosaurus’ skull and cranial bosses were found to be too weak for such combat. In addition, the Choereosaurus’ maxillary boss was packed full of nerves and veins. This isn’t ideal for fighting, since any combat would cause a lot of pain and bleeding.</p>
<p>The maxillary boss is far more suited to supporting a colourful, sensitive cornified pad – a keratinous covering, like a horn. This suggests a bias towards display behaviour, and away from combat.</p>
<h2>Sexual selection</h2>
<p>This is the first evidence of structures dedicated solely to competition between males for mates and territory. These structures would have been used either for low energy fighting and/or sexual display in Eutheriodontia. Since this group was the direct ancestors of modern mammals, revealing their toothy secrets gives us a better understanding of our own mouths and those of other mammals.</p>
<p>The Choereosaurus fossil shows that sexual competition and the associated complex, ritualised behaviour like sexual display and ceremonies of intimidation were an important component of therapsid evolution. This finding suggests that sexual selection may have played a more important role in the origin of mammals than originally thought. </p>
<p>It’s a vital step to reshaping our understanding of humans’ deep evolutionary roots – right down to our canine teeth.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/65663/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Julien Benoit receives funding from PAST and its Scatterlings projects; the National Research Foundation of South Africa; and the DST-NRF Centre of Excellence in Palaeosciences (CoE in Palaeosciences). </span></em></p>
Modern sabre-tooth mammals have their canines constantly on display. This allows them to seduce mates. But was sexual selection also an important phenomenon among our pre-mammalian ancestors?
Julien Benoit, Postdoc in Vertebrate Palaeontology, University of the Witwatersrand
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/62246
2016-07-11T09:57:03Z
2016-07-11T09:57:03Z
British women will soon be able to serve on the military frontline – but are they ready to fight?
<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/130003/original/image-20160711-9264-1241vju.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="http://www.shutterstock.com/pic-445108723/stock-photo-british-special-forces-soldiers-with-weapon-take-part-in-military-maneuver-war-army-technology.html?src=NvesWkZi_Ow3zpfshxZY6w-1-21">Shutterstock/studio0411</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>At last, a ban that has long restricted women’s roles within the British military <a href="http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2016/07/08/women-to-serve-in-combat-in-british-forces/">is to be lifted</a>. For years, sceptics and fearmongers have influenced policy and public opinion in the UK preventing women from serving in ground close combat roles, “where the <a href="https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/27403/Report_review_excl_woman_combat_pr.pdf">primary role is to close with and kill the enemy</a>”; stopping female soldiers from joining the Royal Marines, RAF Regiment, infantry and armoured regiments.</p>
<p>Myths regarding women’s physical inferiority, questionable mental discipline and emotional stability, to name a few, have <a href="https://theconversation.com/eight-myths-about-women-on-the-military-frontline-and-why-we-shouldnt-believe-them-55594">long been disproved by research</a> and finally it seems like policy has caught up with the facts. From November, a <a href="https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/536423/20160615-WGCC-COSIfindings-Public_FINAL.pdf">phased implementation of the new policy</a> will see women becoming eligible to crew tanks in the Royal Armoured Corps alongside their male crewman. This three-year phased approach will then be extended to all areas of the military including the Royal Marines and the Parachute Regiment by late 2018. </p>
<p>Considering this timescale, there is still plenty of time for the policy to be amended or stalled, as has happened in other countries: in January this year, the US – just one month after announcing <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2015/12/04/us/politics/combat-military-women-ash-carter.html?_r=1">all combat jobs</a> would be open to women with no exceptions – stated that their “gender-neutral” policy <a href="http://edition.cnn.com/2016/01/05/politics/women-joining-special-forces-delay/">wouldn’t actually include Special Forces</a> units.</p>
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<p>Having women on the frontline is a contentious topic in many areas of the world, including the UK. And one very important question still needs to be asked: will women want to serve in ground combat roles?</p>
<p>There is certainly no shortage of female talent in the military, yet it remains to be seen whether they have the appetite for offensive close combat. Since the announcement on July 8 2016 that women will be allowed to apply for ground combat roles, serving female soldiers have already come out saying that they have <a href="http://www.telegraph.co.uk/women/work/putting-women-soldiers-like-me-on-the-front-line-is-dangerous/">serious reservations about it</a>, with some citing “pure biology” as the reason.</p>
<p>Current selection processes for frontline roles are largely a <a href="http://www.army.mod.uk/documents/general/ADSC_Fitness_Selection_Standards.pdf">physical aptitude test</a> which is <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qLGrDbA7v_o">optimised for a male cohort</a>. But while sceptics believe women are incapable of attaining the current fitness requirements for ground close combat roles – an Army review estimated that <a href="http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/defence/11304952/Fewer-than-40-women-a-year-to-get-ground-combat-jobs.html">fewer than 40 soldiers</a> would be up to standard – women in the US are already proving them wrong. </p>
<p>Major Misty Posey of the US Marine Corps notes that the problem is that <a href="http://www.marines.mil/Portals/59/Docs/SecretToPullupsHowToGoFrom0To20.pdf">women often don’t know <em>how</em> to train for the tests</a> but that the key to success is technique not gender. If women are to pass the demanding tests then <a href="http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2880029/Girl-soldiers-fight-frontline-2016-senior-officers-warn-allowing-women-infantry-tank-regiments-mistake.html">they need to train smartly</a> and not necessarily in the same way that their male counterparts do.</p>
<p>Furthermore, if women are to be successfully integrated into the last male military bastions then the current standards need to be retained. Any reduction in selection and training criteria will seriously undermine the acceptance of women by their male counterparts and most likely result in gender resentment and a reduction in the combat effectiveness of the organisation. </p>
<h2>Equality or politics?</h2>
<p>The decision to allow women into combative roles on the frontline is long overdue for the the British Armed Forces, and they are at last falling in line with allies such as <a href="https://theconversation.com/women-in-australias-military-on-the-frontline-of-the-gender-war-3711">Australia</a>, <a href="http://www.telegraph.co.uk/women/womens-life/11276724/Army-front-line-Women-are-to-fight-on-the-front-line.-Now-the-battle-really-begins.html">Canada</a> and the <a href="http://www.news.com.au/world/north-america/army-approves-first-22-female-officers-for-ground-combat-jobs/news-story/744ea4d1e848873ac5d76060f6339c0e">United States</a>.</p>
<p>Unfortunately, the news has not been well received by all. There are still a number of individuals who express <a href="http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2016/07/10/allowing-women-soldiers-on-front-line-will-cost-lives-warns-form/">deep concerns about the impact women</a> will have on operational effectiveness, calling it a “social experiment” in equality.</p>
<p>When asked about the news, a retired British Army soldier told me: “Once again our lives are to be put at risk by politicians making ill-informed decisions, all because women want to be equal. The Army is in full self-destruct mode.” </p>
<p>This sentiment is shared by many “old and bold” ex-service personnel, and is coupled with a more general <a href="http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2016/04/05/putting-women-on-the-front-line-is-dangerous-pc-meddling-we-will/">cry of “political correctness gone mad”</a>. But there seems to be a generational disparity dividing opinion here. A growing number of current service personnel support the policy change after <a href="http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/real-life-stories/female-soldier-describes-life-frontline-1775718">successfully serving alongside female colleagues</a> on the frontline in Iraq and Afghanistan.</p>
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<p>I asked Royal Air Force Corporal Victoria Keats what she thought of this difference in opinion. She said:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>I joined the RAF 11 years ago rather than following in the footsteps of my father, a former soldier, because he was concerned about the poor attitudes soldiers held against female colleagues back then. I think attitudes have changed now and the new recruits have joined up not knowing any different and understanding the value of having women in the section.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>After years of amalgamation and downsizing, the British Armed Forces should now strive to create a resilient, effective force, in which access to roles is based on merit, competence and qualifications, not on genetic makeup. </p>
<p>Women currently make up only a small proportion of the UK military and while many believe this new policy will have <a href="http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/defence/11304952/Fewer-than-40-women-a-year-to-get-ground-combat-jobs.html">little impact on recruitment figures</a>, there is a possibility that we are entering a new era. An era that will see more women enlisting to serve their county as they no longer have to accept working in an environment which restricts their career opportunities, allowing them to compete as an equal across all employment roles.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/62246/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Leanne K Simpson receives funding from the British Ministry of Defence via their Defence Science and Technology Laboratory via there Ph.D studentship scheme researching mental robustness in military personnel. This article does not reflect the views of the research councils or other publicly-funded bodies.</span></em></p>
Equality is coming to the British Armed Forces, whether it’s wanted or not.
Dr Leanne K Simpson, PhD Candidate, School of Psychology | Institute for the Psychology of Elite Performance, Bangor University
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/61456
2016-06-24T09:40:54Z
2016-06-24T09:40:54Z
How the Battle of the Bastards squares with medieval history
<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/127888/original/image-20160623-30250-1cqx0x9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">©2016 Home Box Office, Inc.</span></span></figcaption></figure><p><em>This article contains spoilers for Game of Thrones season six, episode nine.</em></p>
<p>A 12-foot giant, his unhuman features oddly familiar (almost homely, after two screen decades colonised by combat-ready orcs) wheels around a wintry courtyard, wondering at the thicket of arrow shafts now wound around his torso. He stops, sways somewhat, and falls, dead. So Wun Wun the Wilding met his doom in The Battle of the Bastards, the penultimate episode of this season of Game of Thrones.</p>
<p>One casualty which, with countless others in the scenes before and after, might have a claim to a place in history, apparently. “The most fully realised medieval battle we’ve ever seen on the small screen (if not the big one too)”, is the <a href="http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/tv/reviews/game-of-thrones-season-6-episode-9-review-battle-of-the-bastards-was-an-astonishing-piece-of-a7090936.html">breathless verdict</a> from The Independent.</p>
<p>As a full-time historian of the other Middle Ages – Europe’s, every bit as feuding and physical as the Seven Kingdoms but with <a href="http://www.britannica.com/science/medieval-warm-period">better weather</a> – I am struck by the irony that Martin’s mock-medieval world might now be seen to set the bar for authenticity. There’s no doubt that for much of screen’s first century, medieval was the Cinderella era: overlooked, patronised and pressed into service for clumsy stage-adaptations, musical comedy and children. But over the past two decades – almost from the moment that Marsellus <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tVRPz6-Tkww">fired the line</a> in Pulp Fiction (1994) – we have been “getting medieval” more and more.</p>
<h2>Medieval millennium</h2>
<p>Any connection between <a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0112573/">Braveheart</a> (1995) and recorded history may have been purely coincidental, but its representation of the scale and scramble of combat at the turn of the 13th century set a new standard, pushing even Kenneth Branagh’s earnest <a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0097499/">Henry V</a> (1989) closer to the Panavison pantomime of <a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0036910/">Laurence Olivier’s film</a> (1944). Branagh had at least toned down the hues of his happy breed from the bold – indeed, freshly laundered – primary colours of Sir Laurence’s light brigade, but his men-at-arms still jabbed at each other with the circumspection of the stage-fighters while noble knights strutted and preened.</p>
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<p>Of course, at times it threatened to be a false dawn: <a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0113071/?ref_=fn_al_tt_1">First Knight</a> (1995) and <a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0183790/?ref_=fn_al_tt_1">A Knight’s Tale</a> (2001) are undeniable obstacles in making the case for a new realism. But new epics have extended the territory taken in Mel Gibson’s first rebel assault. </p>
<p>Now already a decade old, <a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0320661/?ref_=fn_al_tt_1">Kingdom of Heaven</a> (2005) achieved a level of accuracy without reducing the cinematic to the documentary. For the first time, the scene and size of the opposing forces were not compromised by either budget or technological limitations. The audience is led to gates of the Holy City as it would have appeared to the Crusaders. The armies’ subsequent encounter with one another is captured with the same vivid colour and fear that the contemporary chroniclers conjure them, catching especially the crazy spectacle of Christian liturgical performance – crucifixes, chanting priests – on the Middle Eastern plain. And descriptive details were not lost, particularly in the contentious arena of Crusader kit, now a <a href="http://www.thefantasyforum.com/threads/what-did-crusaders-knights-wear.13123/">hobbyists’ domain</a> into which only the brave production designer – and braver historian – strays. </p>
<p>Meanwhile, Peter Jackson painted energetically with his medieval palate in the Lords of the Rings trilogy, not, of course, pointing us to a place or time but certainly providing a superior visual vocabulary for the experience of combat in a pre-industrial age.</p>
<h2>Back to basics</h2>
<p>So, has Game of Thrones bettered this? </p>
<p>There are certainly some satisfyingly authentic twists and turns woven around The Battle of the Bastards. The most significant casualties occur away from the melee of the pitched battle in one of a number of routs (medieval battles always ended with a ragged rout, not a decisive bloodbath). And the principal actors in the drama do not readily present themselves for a tidy dispatch. The mounted forces of Westeros are rarely decisive and even fighters of the highest status do not see out the day in the saddle.</p>
<p>Also accurate are the individual acts of near-bestial violence which occur, are witnessed and go on to define the significance of battle. The deliberate breaking of Ramsey’s face by Jon Snow is a point-of-entry into a central but still under-researched dimension of medieval conflict: ritual violence, such as the <a href="https://books.google.co.uk/books?id=ORhjd-QXVTAC&pg=PA10&dq=walsingham+chronicle&hl=en&sa=X&redir_esc=y#v=onepage&q=welsh&f=false">systematic, obscene dismemberment</a> of the dead and dying English by their Welsh enemies during the Glyn Dwr wars.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/127889/original/image-20160623-30283-iknaay.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/127889/original/image-20160623-30283-iknaay.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=338&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/127889/original/image-20160623-30283-iknaay.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=338&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/127889/original/image-20160623-30283-iknaay.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=338&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/127889/original/image-20160623-30283-iknaay.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/127889/original/image-20160623-30283-iknaay.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/127889/original/image-20160623-30283-iknaay.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Before the fall.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">©2016 Home Box Office, Inc.</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Yet I suspect that these are not the snapshots that have won the superlatives. No doubt it is the standout features of the battle scenes: their scale, the weaponry and the “reality” of wounding in real time that have held most attention. And these threaten to turn us again in the direction of that <em>Ur</em>-Middle Ages which we had every reason to hope we had left for good.</p>
<p>Because medieval armies were always smaller than was claimed, far smaller than we see here. Weaponry was not fixed in time, but – more like the Western Front in 1917 than you might imagine – a fluid domain of fast-developing technology. It is time that directors gave space to firearms, which were the firsthand experience of any fighting man from the final quarter of the 15th century. They must also shed their conviction that “medieval” means hand-to-hand combat. It was sustained arrow-fire that felled armies, not swordplay, nor fisticuffs. </p>
<p>Life on the medieval battle path also meant poor health, rapid ageing and no personal grooming. So we are also overdue sight of a medieval fighting force as it might actually have arrived on the field: neither sporting sexy hairstyles, nor match-fit for action. They of course arrived after months of marching, if they arrived at all: dysentery passed through campaigning forces with fatal routine. They faced their foe in a youth that would have felt more like middle age to you and me.</p>
<p>And in the middle of this <em>Ur</em>-medieval battlefield there is a 12-foot giant, just to confirm that this not medieval Europe, by any means.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/61456/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>James Clark's research has been funded by UK Research Councils and charities. </span></em></p>
This week’s episode of Game of Thrones saw a battle scene that some have claimed to be the greatest TV has ever seen.
James Clark, Professor of Medieval History, University of Exeter
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/3622
2011-10-02T19:22:12Z
2011-10-02T19:22:12Z
Why I want to serve on the front line, despite challenges for women at war
<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/4012/original/Taliban_offensive.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Women will soon join their male colleagues on the front line in dangerous deployments like Afghanistan.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">AAP/Australian Department of Defence</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>I wish to serve my country and the national interest in the best way possible. Now <a href="http://theconversation.com/women-in-combat-the-battle-is-over-but-the-war-against-prejudice-grinds-on-3593">women are to be allowed to serve on the front line</a> becoming an infantry officer is a real possibility. But there are hurdles for the Australian military to overcome in these challenging, yet hopeful times.</p>
<h2>Politics and policy</h2>
<p>First, we cannot separate the politics from the policy. The Minister for Defence has declared that the policy of opening all ADF roles to women will be rolled out within five years. </p>
<p>I believe in gender equality in the armed services, but we should be clear about the timing of the announcement and its impact on this deadline. </p>
<p>Although political intentions can lead to progressive and positive outcomes, there will be pressure to produce the ADF’s first female Infantry platoon commander within the alloted timeframe. </p>
<p>There is every chance that the right women will pass through the ranks of <a href="http://www.army.gov.au/rmc/Duntroon.asp">Duntroon</a>, the Army’s officer academy, or the <a href="http://www.defence.gov.au/adfa/">Australian Defence Force Academy</a>, a tri-service educational institution. </p>
<p>But the political reality is that without such a woman produced by that time, there is a risk that a focus on numbers as a measure of success may drive a particular outcome.</p>
<h2>Physical standards </h2>
<p>There is also confusion about physical standards. </p>
<p>The policy has been announced without a detailed plan of implementation; in particular, without any indication as to whether physical standards will be raised or lowered. As it stands, there are currently <a href="http://www.defencejobs.gov.au/fitness/">different physical fitness requirements</a> for men and women wishing to enter the ADF. </p>
<p>We don’t know whether the final requirements for each ADF role will be the higher set of standards (that is, those for males) or will fall in between the standards. </p>
<p>If the physical standards are high, particularly for infantry and special forces units, and only a few women pass, then that is the reality of the situation. </p>
<p>The ADF will have a small proportion of willing and able women in these units. This only becomes problematic if it runs counter to political expectations of what sort of outcome would be achieved with the gender policy reform. </p>
<p>If standards are lowered, then there is some credence to protests of critics who predict a diminution of combat effectiveness. </p>
<p>Ultimately, it will be up to the <a href="http://www.dsto.defence.gov.au/">Defence Science and Technology Organisation</a>/University of Wollongong <a href="http://www.dsto.defence.gov.au/news/5839/">program</a> to provide comprehensive research supported by robust data to determine the correct physical requirements commensurate with expected combat effectiveness.</p>
<h2>Unit cohesion</h2>
<p>There are legitimate concerns that unit cohesion will be affected. This is particularly important for the infantry, and essential for mission accomplishment. More women will be encouraged to apply in light of institutional and legal barriers being lifted, but the proportion of women in combat units is unlikely to be significant in number. </p>
<p>That said, a robust understanding of the realistic challenges these demographic changes will mean, especially for the infantry, is paramount. </p>
<p>An army is a complex system of individuals who, in arduous physical and psychological circumstances, must work cooperatively and efficiently in defence of the national interest. </p>
<p>The introduction of women in combat units will not rupture their espirt de corps but it will bring a range of psychological challenges to bear between soldiers and within units.</p>
<p>It will fall to unit commanders and army psychologists to manage these challenges but not without greater support from the Defence organisation.</p>
<h2>Initiation</h2>
<p>Let me take the extreme case of an Infantry platoon deployed at length to Afghanistan chronicled in <a href="http://www.sebastianjunger.com/page/the-book">Sebastian Junger’s book, “War”</a>.</p>
<p>It is a visceral account of modern warfare that focuses on close quarters combat and intra-soldier relations. What Junger depicts is an extraordinary level of “brotherhood” forged between the men of Battle Company through a shared experience of killing, death, bullying, hazing, sexual deprivation, and immense psychological and emotional pressure. </p>
<p>Initiation into the unit is conducted by way of physical beating by the entire platoon, a practice tacitly condoned by officers who themselves undergo this process.</p>
<p>Whether these practices are right or wrong, an important question to ask is, how seminal are these experiences and these bonds to the role of fighting and killing in war? </p>
<p>Whether a woman would want to undergo such rites of passage in this case is immaterial. The question is, what sort of informal initiation processes actually exist and can be expected? Would male colleagues subject their female counterparts to this?</p>
<p>It is not to say that these sorts of practices necessarily exist in the Australia, or cannot change over time, but we must be open minded about the reality of what certain soldiers experience. </p>
<h2>Female exceptionalism </h2>
<p>Isolated cases of female snipers and <a href="http://www.abc.net.au/news/2011-08-08/world-war-ii-heroine-nancy-wake-dies/2828854">Nancy Wakes</a> are not enough in themselves to justify a cultural shift without adequate understanding of human complexities. Nancy Wake is often cited as proof that women can fight and kill alongside male operatives, but hers was a very different time and exceptional circumstance. </p>
<p>The very fact we celebrate her life and death with such fascination (noting that she was one of many other Special Operations Executive agents) suggests a sense of female exceptionalism that must be, over time, dismantled. Thus, the integration of women into all kinds of combat roles requires careful study.</p>
<p>It has been a momentous week for women in the ADF but we should pause to consider just what we’re asking men and women in uniform to do.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/3622/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Natalie Sambhi does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>
I wish to serve my country and the national interest in the best way possible. Now women are to be allowed to serve on the front line becoming an infantry officer is a real possibility. But there are hurdles…
Natalie Sambhi, Analyst at the Australian Strategic Policy Institute and Hedley Bull scholar, Australian National University
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/3593
2011-09-28T20:38:37Z
2011-09-28T20:38:37Z
Women in combat: the battle is over but the war against prejudice grinds on
<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/3932/original/PIC_-_women_in_combat.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">An Australian soldier in Afghanistan: women will now have the chance to join combat units.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">AAP</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Defence Minister Stephen Smith <a href="http://www.minister.defence.gov.au/2011/09/27/minister-for-defence-removal-of-restrictions-on-combat-roles-for-women/">has announced</a> the Australian Defence Force will open up full employment opportunities for women. </p>
<p>In a decision made by Cabinet on Monday night, with the full support of the Defence Chiefs, the last 7% of “combat” roles will be available for women to serve. The ADF has outlined a five-year transition plan. </p>
<p>For supporters of the policy, the move is an historic one. Australia becomes one of only four nations globally, along with Canada, New Zealand and Denmark, that offers women the same employment opportunities as men within the Defence Forces. </p>
<p>Women will now be able to serve in the artillery, as navy clearance divers, airfield defence guards, infantry and the Special Air Service Regiment. As long as they meet the requirements, and demonstrate the capacity. </p>
<h2>Masking conservatism?</h2>
<p>Enthusiasm for the policy begins to slow down around questions of women’s capacity to execute the role. Heated responses to the policy move argue that women will not be physically able to make the cut. </p>
<p>Do these arguments hold water or do they just hold women back? Is the question of capacity a mask for cultural conservatism? </p>
<p>Those resistant to the notion explain women will not be able to meet the endurance requirements, carry the heavy packs and weapons, or manage the dirty, dangerous work of the combat trades. </p>
<p>Psychological concerns focus on the way women will disrupt the combat unit. The “die hard grunt” will argue that a woman cannot be trusted to do the job properly, that there will be a need to constantly scrutinise her work.</p>
<p>And some say women have aberrant hygiene needs that a group of warriors could not possibly manage.</p>
<h2>Dead Diggers </h2>
<p>Capacity arguments are irrelevant to the policy reality. No military personnel can fill these trades if they do not meet the physical standards required. </p>
<p>And the fear is misplaced. There will not be a horde of women coming over the top to infiltrate these trades. Just as many men reject the trades of combat, so will many women. </p>
<p>Other Defence Forces who have taken this step still have marginal representation in these roles some years after the gender barrier was lifted. </p>
<p>Subsequently, arguments such as that <a href="http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/australiaandthepacific/australia/8792023/Australia-women-allowed-to-take-on-frontline-military-role.html">made by</a> the Executive Officer for the Australia Defence Association (ADA) Neil James reflect a rendezvous with the ridiculous:</p>
<p>“The issue they don’t appear to be willing to address is the risk of disproportionate casualties. Someone, is going to have to face the people of Australia and explain why we’re killing our female diggers [soldiers] in larger numbers than our male diggers.”</p>
<h2>Women in combat are as old as war itself</h2>
<p>It seems if you resist an idea, there are plenty of ways to make an argument against it. </p>
<p>Women have been involved in warfare in the past and are engaged in warfare now. In the 1941 Yugoslav liberation war, around 100,000 women were active combatants. Women also fought alongside their male counterparts in the Algerian liberation war. </p>
<p>Today, women serve in roles in Afghanistan that come under fire, and indeed numerous women have been killed in action in the British, Canadian and United States forces. </p>
<p>The capacity arguments draw on the authority of science to thinly veil a cultural resistance to women serving in combat roles. And it is indeed cultural barriers that present the biggest challenge to women wanting to move into these male realms. </p>
<h2>Can a hyper-macho culture be changed?</h2>
<p>In Australia currently, about 86% of the ADF is male. Apart from support roles to the combat trades, combat roles are exclusively populated by men. These are male domains. </p>
<p>The reality that very few women will move into these roles is both a reason to keep our feet on the ground but also a reason for concern. </p>
<p>The infantry battalion, for example, is a profoundly hyper-masculine environment. The infanteer embodies a warrior ethos scaffolded by a logic of brotherhood. </p>
<p>In this context, men who do not meet the cultural standards of the group are ostracised. </p>
<p>Given the way in which incidents like the <a href="http://www.smh.com.au/national/defence-academy-says-it-will-be-vindicated-20110927-1kvi5.html">ADFA Skype affair</a> or the <a href="http://news.smh.com.au/breaking-news-national/hmas-success-investigation-deficient-20110922-1kn1i.html">HMAS Success</a> “Love Boat” scandal persistently arise, this is the barrier that must be most seriously addressed. </p>
<p>These incidents are marked by male predatory sexual behaviour and represent an institutional culture that does not yet provide genuine safety for women that serve in the ADF.</p>
<p>This is the real challenge for women moving into these domains, and this is the biggest challenge for the ADF in genuinely opening up full employment to them. </p>
<p>This challenge will need to be met by the provision of effective equity mechanisms, and complaints services and procedures. The attitudes the Command have demonstrated in taking this policy direction must become an institutional disposition. </p>
<h2>Zero tolerance for discrimination</h2>
<p>So often, the prejudice of men is tacitly condoned among the ranks and local leadership. From section, to platoon commander and upwards, the ADF must embrace a genuine policy of zero tolerance of men’s discriminatory practices. </p>
<p>Opening up full employment in the ADF is so much more than an argument about capacity or even military effectiveness. These ideas are important when argued sensibly, but this move is about cultural change. </p>
<p>The ADF as an institution must modernise to maintain organisational effectiveness. It must also work hard to correspond to broader community standards. </p>
<p>Opening up full employment for women is just the start.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/3593/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Ben Wadham does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>
Defence Minister Stephen Smith has announced the Australian Defence Force will open up full employment opportunities for women. In a decision made by Cabinet on Monday night, with the full support of the…
Ben Wadham, Senior Lecturer, Flinders University
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.