United States Coast Guard Maritime law enforcement seizure of boats, Research Paper

United States Coast Guard Maritime law enforcement seizure of boats, weapons, and contraband - Research Paper Example The paper reflects the role of the Coast Guard of US which enquires, inspects and searches the waters for the violators of United States maritime laws including traffickers of drugs, arms and to prevent illegal human migration. Introduction The United States have entered into a number of counter-narcotics agreements with different countries. In total there are 25 countries which have a law enforcing agreement including 3 countries that entered into the agreement after the completion of military installation in the Panama Canal in 2000. The countries include many of the Latin American countries like Colombia, Costa Rica, Jamaica, Haiti, Honduras, Nicaragua, Panama, Trinidad and Tobago, Venezuela etc. The agreements are based on a number of clauses and allow the coast guards different degree of freedom to enforce the maritime counter-narcotics laws of the United States. According to the ship-boarding provisions the authorities of United States can take quick permission from the other countries for the coast guards to search a vessel for illegal trafficking. In some cases no permission are required from the respective countries to board and search the vessel. Most of the countries except El Salvador, Netherlands Antilles and Aruba and Turks and Caicos have this agreement with the United States. According to the ship-rider provision the coast guards can position officers on the vessels of the countries. Colombia, Ecuador, El Salvador and Venezuela are the only countries that do not have an agreement of ship-riding with the United States. Pursuit provision has given the Coast Guards the ability to chase a vessel or aircraft into the territories of different country or search their vessel in the absence of available vessel or aircrafts of the country. All the countries have agreed on this provision except for Colombia, Ecuador, El Salvador, Turks and Ca icos and Venezuela (United States Government Accountability Office, 2005, pp. 39-40). Role of Coast Guard Coast Guard is one of the premier forces for the enforcement of laws and has a high number of arrests and seizures each year (Roach, Smith, 1996, p. 491). The following table shows the removal statistics of Coast Guard Drug removal (year wise) in pounds United States Coast Guard, 2011 Narcotics One of the major duties of the United States coast guard is to identify and interdict the drugs smuggled through water mainly by the small sea vessels. Near the coastal areas the coast guards ensure the enforcement of drug laws in collaboration with the United States Customs Service. Further away into the ocean the US coast guards are the primary force responsible for enduring the drug laws. The major regions of duty of the force rest in the Gulf of Mexico, the Caribbean and in the region of South Florida. In the former two areas the force looks out for mother ships that transfer their ca rgo to the smaller boats which carry it to the coasts. Apart from the drugs the other items of marine trafficking are arms and illegal human transport. The United States coast guards also carry out regular missions to prevent these kinds of trafficking. The force also ensures that the United States marine reserves like fisheries and other reserves are protected from the outsiders. Often the vessels of transport are seized by the force (Kash, Cross, 1987, 34-35; University of Virginia). In 1994, 28 vessels were seized by the United States Coast Guards which is a sharp decline from the previous year’s trends. Most of these vessels were carrying large

Changes in Britains Society during WWII Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

Changes in Britains Society during WWII - Essay Example Men were now called upon to not only take up arms but also to till the land, to provide rations to the fighting force, and to make weapons. Every man had to contribute to the war effort, be it by joining the armed forces or making weapons. The Second World War was and is the topic of much speculation, debate and inquiry and the humongous literature which this war produced is unparalleled in scope. This war affected the whole world at large, while its impact on the participating nations is felt even to this day. In Britain this war was called the People's War and it changed the lives of the men and women and children who lived through it, by altering the political idiom and changing the social landscape. Professor Sonya O. Rose, in her book titled "Which People's War National Identity and Citizenship in Wartime Britain, 1939-1945" gives an account of the general mood of the time and the consensual nature of the general population, who banded together, unmindful of class, gender, age, or political affiliations to defeat the common enemy-Nazi Germany. This war was total in its scope, in that no life was left untouched by the upheavals it caused. Professor Rose, in her work has also placed a great deal of emphasis on the ideal of nationalism which permeated the national consciousness. The Welsh and the Scots, with their strong regional identities joined the war effort but the constant reference to it as England's war, gave rise to the regional aspirations and she notes how the Scottish soldier's keenness to wear a kilt may be construed as an anti-English sentiment, while fighting on the British side. John Stevenson's book on British society (1914 - 45) highlights the salient factors that took place in the society of Britain during the Second World War. Stevenson explores the different periods in British history and presents us with a clear interpretation of many important events and incidents that took place during that time. Some of the topics that he deals with in his book are the ravages of war, women's suffrage and wartime experiences, class system and organized labor in relation to the parliament, the economy and welfare reforms that existed during that period, foreign policy, equal citizenship, gender roles and appeasement of the existing situations. Gender Roles - Women during the war Stevenson's book highlights many of the strongly held beliefs surrounding the war. It tells us of how the greatest source of female employment was domestic service. Despite the fact that most of the women were employed in munitions factories and even though there was a massive escalation in the production of armaments, yet rendering domestic services was a priority in female labor. The role of women underwent the greatest change during this period, and they were called upon to fill up the roles traditionally reserved for men. Carol Harris, in the article "Women under Fire in World War Two," details the duties which women were called upon to perform and the new roles they had to take upon themselves. During World War I, women took up jobs in the essential services so that men could go and fight the war but, in World War II Sir William Beveridge, in a secret report in 1940, clearly spelt out that women would have to be conscripted in the army, although they would not have to bear arms. Women were called u