Assassination and Targeted Killing: Law Enforcement,Execution or Self‐Defence?

abstract   During the current round of fighting in the Middle East, Israel has provoked considerable controversy as it turned to targeted killings or assassination to battle militants. While assassination has met with disfavour among traditional observers, commentators have, more recently, sought to justify targeted killings with an appeal to both self-defence and law enforcement. While each paradigm allows the use of lethal force, they are fundamentally incompatible, the former stipulating moral innocence and the latter demanding the presumption of criminal guilt. Putting aside the paradigm of law enforcement which demands due process and forbids extra-judicial execution, the only possible avenue for justifying named killings lies in self-defence. While named killings might be defensible on the grounds that there are no other ways to disable combatants when they fight without uniforms, the costs, including the cost of targeted killing emerging as an acceptable convention in its own right, should be sufficient to view the practice with a good deal of caution.     

AWKWARD SILENCES: BEHAVIORAL ANTECEDENTS AND CONSEQUENCES OF THE CONVERSATIONAL LAPSE

Audio tape-recordings of 30-minute conversations between pairs of strangers (N=90) were scored for the frequency and duration of conversational lapses, interactive silences of three or more seconds occurring at the recognizable completion of a turn-constructional unit. Ten-utterance segments of conversation immediately prior and immediately subsequent to lapses were transcribed from the tapes of 45 of the conversations characterized by multiple lapses. Pre-and post lapse behaviors were coded as (A) (B) discloses, questions, edifies, acknowledges, advises, interprets, confirms, reflects. Also coded were gaps and laughter outbursts. Lag sequential analysis of the pre lapse data indicated that behavior sequences prior to lapses were characterized by a pattern of “minimal response” by one of the participants. Post lapse sequences were characterized by the presence of question-answer adjacency pairs.     

Predicted Outcome Value During Initial Interactions A Reformulation of Uncertainty Reduction Theory

This article presents an expansion and reformulation of uncertainty reduction theory. Past research indicates that support for the basic axioms of the uncertainty perspective is weak, especially with regard to initial interaction processes. It is suggested that uncertainty reduction is not the primary concern of individuals during this entry phase, as previously posited. Rather, uncertainty reduction is cast as subordinate to the more central concern of increasing positive relational outcomes. During initial interactions, uncertainty reduction is expected to enhance individuals perceived ability to forecast future relational outcomes. Important initial interaction behaviors and decisions are presumed to follow from the values these forecasted outcomes take. Several major revisions of uncertainty axioms and theorems are generated.     

REALISM AND SELF-KNOWLEDGE: A PROBLEM FOR BURGE

Philosophical Studies -