Misplaced Pages

#98901

138-621: The mission of the National Armed Forces (NAF) is to defend the sovereignty and territorial integrity of the nation and to defend its population against foreign or domestic armed aggression. In order to implement these tasks, the NAF provide for the defence of the nation, its air space and national territorial waters, participate in large scale crisis response operations, perform emergency rescue operations, and participate in international peacekeeping operations. The main mission of

276-414: A 12-pounder quick firing gun and a machine gun; an armoured cabin behind the artillery piece contained the magazine . Inboard of each gun truck was a truck for infantry quarters. This was also armoured, with observation ports and loops for rifle fire. The armoured locomotive, with the cab and motion protected, was marshalled into the centre of the train. The driver took up a position at whichever end of

414-555: A Brighton -born solicitor and officer in the 1st Sussex Artillery Volunteers , published The Armoured Train for Coast Defence in Great Britain , outlining a new way to employ heavy artillery. In 1894, when he had become commanding officer of the 1st Sussex AV, railway workers among the volunteers of No 6 Garrison Company manned an armoured train constructed in the workshops of the London, Brighton and South Coast Railway (of which

552-557: A senate from whom he can obtain advice, to delegate some power to magistrates for the practical administration of the law, and to use the Estates as a means of communicating with the people. Bodin believed that "the most divine, most excellent, and the state form most proper to royalty is governed partly aristocratically and partly democratically". During the Age of Enlightenment , the idea of sovereignty gained both legal and moral force as

690-480: A 120 mm mortar, plus several machine guns of between 12.7 and 7.62 mm. During the Siege of Bihać in 1994, it was attacked on a few occasions with antitank rocket-propelled grenades and 76 mm guns and hit by a 9K11 Malyutka missile, but the damage was minor, as most of the train was covered with thick sheets of rubber which caused the missile's warhead to explode too early to do any real damage. The train

828-745: A 59-year period during which it was recognised as sovereign by many (mostly Roman Catholic) states despite possessing no territory – a situation resolved when the Lateran Treaties granted the Holy See sovereignty over the Vatican City . Another case, sui generis is the Sovereign Military Order of Malta , the third sovereign entity inside Italian territory (after San Marino and the Vatican City State ) and

966-435: A bigger state nor is their governance subjected to supervision. The sovereignty (i.e. legal right to govern) however, is disputed in both cases as the first entity is claimed by Serbia and the second by Somalia . Internal sovereignty is the relationship between sovereign power and the political community. A central concern is legitimacy : by what right does a government exercise authority? Claims of legitimacy might refer to

1104-648: A company of volunteers of the Durban Light Infantry , and a 7-pounder mountain gun manned by sailors from HMS Tartar . Winston Churchill accompanied the mission as a war correspondent. The train was ambushed and part-derailed, and Haldane, Churchill and some 70 of the troops were captured after a fire-fight, although the locomotive got away with the wounded. Recalling his experience in My Early Life , Churchill wrote "Nothing looks more formidable and impressive than an armoured train; but nothing

1242-502: A country and is not subordinate to any other government in that country or a foreign sovereign state. ( The Arantzazu Mendi , [1939] A.C. 256), Stroud's Judicial Dictionary External sovereignty is connected with questions of international law – such as when, if ever, is intervention by one country into another's territory permissible? Following the Thirty Years' War , a European religious conflict that embroiled much of

1380-538: A designated individual or group of individuals that are acting on behalf of the people of the state. Juridical sovereignty emphasizes the importance of other states recognizing the rights of a state to exercise their control freely with little interference. For example, Jackson, Rosberg and Jones explain how the sovereignty and survival of African states were more largely influenced by legal recognition rather than material aid. Douglass North identifies that institutions want structure and these two forms of sovereignty can be

1518-538: A different country if they have dual citizenship. During the autumn conscription of 2023, as of 14 November, only 170 people volunteered for service, which means that to reach a thousand by 1st of December, it may will be necessary to use the principle of random selection for the autumn draft in order to recruit the required number of people. Along with providing for national defence, the NAF will also react immediately to threats to other allies and to international crises. Latvia cooperates with Estonia and Lithuania in

SECTION 10

#1732783009099

1656-889: A gift from the Soviet Union and the latter used heavily for state visits to China and Russia as he had a fear of flying. Facing the threat of Chinese cross-border raids during the Sino-Soviet split , the USSR developed armoured trains in the early 1970s to protect the Trans-Siberian Railway . According to different accounts, four or five trains were built. Every train included ten main battle tanks , two light amphibious tanks , several AA guns , as well as several armoured personnel carriers , supply vehicles and equipment for railway repairs. They were all mounted on open platforms or in special rail cars. Different parts of

1794-481: A kind of rail-tank called a draisine . One such example was the 'Littorina' armoured trolley which had a cab in the front and rear, each with a control set so it could be driven down the tracks in either direction. Littorina mounted two dual 7.92 mm MG13 machine gun turrets from Panzer I light tanks. Armoured and armed trains saw use during the 19th century in the American Civil War (1861–1865),

1932-476: A matter of fact, theorists found that during the post Cold War era many people focused on how stronger internal structures promote inter-state peace. For instance, Zaum argues that many weak and impoverished countries that were affected by the Cold War were given assistance to develop their lacking sovereignty through this sub-concept of "empirical statehood". The Roman jurist Ulpian observed that: Ulpian

2070-535: A method for developing structure. For a while, the United Nations highly valued juridical sovereignty and attempted to reinforce its principle often. More recently, the United Nations is shifting away and focusing on establishing empirical sovereignty. Michael Barnett notes that this is largely due to the effects of the post Cold War era because the United Nations believed that to have peaceful relations states should establish peace within their territory. As

2208-452: A museum. The Croatian Army deployed a two-wagon armoured train built in Split with a shield composed of two plates, one 8 mm and the other 6 mm thick, with a 30–50 mm gap filled with sand between them. The vehicle was armed with 12.7 mm machine guns. One armoured train that remains in regular use is that of Kim Il Sung and Kim Jong Il , which the former received as

2346-533: A plan for the re-introduction of military service – officially called the National Defense Service ( Latvian : Valsts aizsardzības dienests , VAD) – first on a voluntary basis and then in compulsory form at a later date for physically and mentally capable males aged 18–27, starting from January 2023. The Government of Latvia supported the plan in September, with the next required step being

2484-541: A professional, volunteer-based service model. However, after the start of the Russo-Ukrainian War in 2014, calls for reintroducing mandatory military service reappeared, with the full invasion of Ukraine by Russia in 2022 being a decisive boost to this momentum, despite initial skepticism from the top leadership in the NAF and the Ministry of Defence. In July 2022, Defence Minister Artis Pabriks announced

2622-435: A simple wagon with a few machine guns sheltered behind sandbags, are also not considered to be armoured trains. The rail cars on an armoured train were designed for many tasks. Typical roles included: Different types of armour were used to protect from attack by tanks. In addition to various metal plates, concrete and sandbags were used in some cases for improvised armoured trains. Armoured trains were sometimes escorted by

2760-434: A single individual was that sovereignty would therefore be indivisible; it would be expressed in a single voice that could claim final authority. An example of an internal sovereign is Louis XIV of France during the seventeenth century; Louis XIV claimed that he was the state. Jean-Jacques Rousseau rejected monarchical rule in favor of the other type of authority within a sovereign state, public sovereignty. Public Sovereignty

2898-407: A state to deter opposition groups in exchange for bargaining. While the operations and affairs within a state are relative to the level of sovereignty within that state, there is still an argument over who should hold the authority in a sovereign state. This argument between who should hold the authority within a sovereign state is called the traditional doctrine of public sovereignty. This discussion

SECTION 20

#1732783009099

3036-644: A strong authority allows you to keep the agreement and enforce sanctions for the violation of laws. The ability for leadership to prevent these violations is a key variable in determining internal sovereignty. The lack of internal sovereignty can cause war in one of two ways: first, undermining the value of agreement by allowing costly violations; and second, requiring such large subsidies for implementation that they render war cheaper than peace. Leadership needs to be able to promise members, especially those like armies, police forces, or paramilitaries will abide by agreements. The presence of strong internal sovereignty allows

3174-462: A strong central authority in the form of absolute monarchy . In his 1576 treatise Les Six Livres de la République ("Six Books of the Republic") Bodin argued that it is inherent in the nature of the state that sovereignty must be: The treatise is frequently viewed as the first European text theorizing state sovereignty. Bodin rejected the notion of transference of sovereignty from people to

3312-587: A supranational organization, such as a continental union . In the case of the European Union member-states, this is called "pooled sovereignty" . Armoured train An armoured train ( Commonwealth English ) or armored train ( American English ) is a railway train protected with heavy metal plating and which often includes railway wagons armed with artillery , machine guns , and autocannons . Some have also had ports used to fire small arms from

3450-447: A unit to deal with the identification and clearance of nuclear pollution . Sovereignty Sovereignty can generally be defined as supreme authority . Sovereignty entails hierarchy within a state as well as external autonomy for states. In any state, sovereignty is assigned to the person, body or institution that has the ultimate authority over other people and to change existing laws. In political theory , sovereignty

3588-593: A versatile and well-equipped nature, including railcars which housed anti-aircraft gun turrets, or designed to load and unload tanks and railcars which had complete armour protection with a large concealed gun/howitzer. Germany also had fully armoured locomotives which were used on such trains. During the Slovak National Uprising , the Slovak resistance used three armoured trains. They were named Hurban , Štefánik and Masaryk . They were built in

3726-467: A wide range of armoured trains, including Trotsky's one . Many were improvised by locals, others were constructed by naval engineers at the Putilov and Izhorskiy factories. As a result, the trains ranged from little more than sandbagged flatbeds to the heavily armed and armoured trains produced by the naval engineers. An attempt to standardise the design from October 1919 only had limited success. By

3864-669: A wide variety of machine guns in different calibers, through various means: trophies acquired from hostile forces during the War of Independence, allied donations and subsequent official state purchases. Light machine guns included the French Chauchat , Danish Madsen , and British Lewis gun (which became the main light machine gun of the Latvian Army). The main heavy machine gun was the British Vickers machine gun in

4002-426: Is a substantive term designating supreme legitimate authority over some polity . In international law , sovereignty is the exercise of power by a state . De jure sovereignty refers to the legal right to do so; de facto sovereignty refers to the factual ability to do so. This can become an issue of special concern upon the failure of the usual expectation that de jure and de facto sovereignty exist at

4140-417: Is between an internal sovereign or an authority of public sovereignty. An internal sovereign is a political body that possesses ultimate, final and independent authority; one whose decisions are binding upon all citizens, groups and institutions in society. Early thinkers believed sovereignty should be vested in the hands of a single person, a monarch. They believed the overriding merit of vesting sovereignty in

4278-461: Is common to all nations (jus gentium), as well as the fundamental laws of the state that determine who is the sovereign, who succeeds to sovereignty, and what limits the sovereign power. Thus, Bodin's sovereign was restricted by the constitutional law of the state and by the higher law that was considered as binding upon every human being. The fact that the sovereign must obey divine and natural law imposes ethical constraints on him. Bodin also held that

Latvian National Armed Forces - Misplaced Pages Continue

4416-427: Is in fact more vulnerable and helpless. It was only necessary to blow up a bridge of culvert to leave the monster stranded, far from home and help, at the mercy of the enemy". During World War I Russia used a mix of light and heavy armoured trains. The heavy trains mounted 4.2 inch or 6 inch guns; the light trains were equipped with 7.62 mm guns. Austria-Hungary also fielded armoured trains against

4554-484: Is its degree of absoluteness . A sovereign power has absolute sovereignty when it is not restricted by a constitution, by the laws of its predecessors, or by custom , and no areas of law or policy are reserved as being outside its control. International law ; policies and actions of neighboring states; cooperation and respect of the populace; means of enforcement; and resources to enact policy are factors that might limit sovereignty. For example, parents are not guaranteed

4692-412: Is not a law" (Book II, Chapter VI) – and predicated on the assumption that the people have an unbiased means by which to ascertain the general will. Thus the legal maxim, "there is no law without a sovereign." According to Hendrik Spruyt , the sovereign state emerged as a response to changes in international trade (forming coalitions that wanted sovereign states) so that the sovereign state's emergence

4830-528: Is not always enlightened, and consequently does not always see wherein the common good lies; hence the necessity of the legislator. But the legislator has, of himself, no authority; he is only a guide who drafts and proposes laws, but the people alone (that is, the sovereign or general will) has authority to make and impose them. Rousseau, in the Social Contract argued, "the growth of the State giving

4968-729: Is now seen to have been an illegal entity by the modern Polish administration. The post-1989 Polish state claims direct continuity from the Second Polish Republic which ended in 1939. For other reasons, however, Poland maintains its communist-era outline as opposed to its pre-World War II shape which included areas now in Belarus , Czech Republic , Lithuania , Slovakia and Ukraine but did not include some of its western regions that were then in Germany . Additionally sovereignty can be achieved without independence, such as how

5106-403: Is one with a government that has been elected by the people and has the popular legitimacy. Internal sovereignty examines the internal affairs of a state and how it operates. It is important to have strong internal sovereignty to keeping order and peace. When you have weak internal sovereignty, organisations such as rebel groups will undermine the authority and disrupt the peace. The presence of

5244-519: Is practiced predominantly by the military or police force it is considered coercive sovereignty . State sovereignty is sometimes viewed synonymously with independence , however, sovereignty can be transferred as a legal right whereas independence cannot. A state can achieve de facto independence long after acquiring sovereignty, such as in the case of Cambodia, Laos and Vietnam. Additionally, independence can also be suspended when an entire region becomes subject to an occupation. For example, when Iraq

5382-543: Is sovereign is not an exact science, but often a matter of diplomatic dispute. There is usually an expectation that both de jure and de facto sovereignty rest in the same organisation at the place and time of concern. Foreign governments use varied criteria and political considerations when deciding whether or not to recognise the sovereignty of a state over a territory. Membership in the United Nations requires that "[t]he admission of any such state to membership in

5520-432: Is that it is a claim that must be recognized if it is to have any meaning: Sovereignty is a hypothetical trade, in which two potentially (or really) conflicting sides, respecting de facto realities of power, exchange such recognitions as their least costly strategy. There are two additional components of sovereignty that should be discussed, empirical sovereignty and juridical sovereignty. Empirical sovereignty deals with

5658-401: Is the belief that ultimate authority is vested in the people themselves, expressed in the idea of the general will. This means that the power is elected and supported by its members, the authority has a central goal of the good of the people in mind. The idea of public sovereignty has often been the basis for modern democratic theory. Within the modern governmental system, internal sovereignty

Latvian National Armed Forces - Misplaced Pages Continue

5796-608: Is the second form of post-world war change in the norms of sovereignty, representing a significant shift since member nations are no longer absolutely sovereign. Some theorists, such as Jacques Maritain and Bertrand de Jouvenel have attacked the legitimacy of the earlier concepts of sovereignty, with Maritain advocating that the concept be discarded entirely since it: Efforts to curtail absolute sovereignty have met with substantial resistance by sovereigntist movements in multiple countries who seek to " take back control " from such transnational governance groups and agreements, restoring

5934-520: Is usually found in states that have public sovereignty and is rarely found within a state controlled by an internal sovereign. A form of government that is a little different from both is the UK parliament system. John Austin argued that sovereignty in the UK was vested neither in the Crown nor in the people but in the " Queen-in-Parliament ". This is the origin of the doctrine of parliamentary sovereignty and

6072-502: Is usually seen as the fundamental principle of the British constitution. With these principles of parliamentary sovereignty, majority control can gain access to unlimited constitutional authority, creating what has been called "elective dictatorship" or "modern autocracy". Public sovereignty in modern governments is a lot more common with examples like the US, Canada, Australia and India where

6210-774: The Canadian National Railway along the Skeena River from Prince Rupert, British Columbia to the Pacific coast, against a possible Japanese seaborne raid. The train was equipped with a 75 mm gun, two Bofors 40 mm guns , and could accommodate a full infantry company. The No 1 Armoured Train entered service in June 1942, was put into reserve in September 1943, and dismantled the following year. Twelve armoured trains were formed in Britain in 1940 as part of

6348-825: The Declaration of State Sovereignty of the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic made the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic a sovereign entity within but not independent from the USSR. At the opposite end of the scale, there is no dispute regarding the self-governance of certain self-proclaimed states such as the Republic of Kosovo or Somaliland (see List of states with limited recognition , but most of them are puppet states ) since their governments neither answer to

6486-689: The First Indochina War , the French Union used the armoured and armed train La Rafale as both a cargo-carrier and a mobile surveillance unit. In February 1951 the first Rafale was in service on the Saigon - Nha Trang line, Vietnam while from 1947 to May 1952 the second one which was escorted by onboard Cambodian troops of the BSPP ( Brigade de Surveillance de Phnom Penh ) was used on

6624-696: The Franco-Prussian War (1870–1871), the First and Second Boer Wars (1880–1881 and 1899–1902). During the Second Boer War Winston Churchill , then a war correspondent , was travelling on an armoured train which was ambushed by a Boer commando led by General Louis Botha on 15 November 1899; the Boers captured Churchill and many of the train's contingent. Early in the 20th century, Russia used armoured trains during

6762-668: The Holocaust , the vast majority of states rejected the prior Westphalian permissiveness towards such supremacist power based sovereignty formulations and signed the Universal Declaration of Human Rights in 1948. It was the first step towards circumscription of the powers of sovereign nations, soon followed by the Genocide Convention which legally required nations to punish genocide. Based on these and similar human rights agreements, beginning in 1990 there

6900-1000: The Italians in World War I. A Royal Navy armoured train from Britain, armed with four QF 6 inch naval guns and one QF 4 inch naval gun , was used in support of the British Expeditionary Force in the opening phase of the First Battle of Ypres in October 1914. Two armoured trains were constructed at Crewe Works during 1915 for British coastal defense duties; one was based in Norfolk and one in Edinburgh to patrol rail routes on stretches of coast considered vulnerable to amphibious assault. The trains comprised two gun trucks, one at each end, mounted with

7038-667: The Latvian Provisional Government , were merged. Seasoned general Dāvids Sīmansons was appointed as the first Commander-in-Chief. At the end of the Latvian War of Independence , the Latvian Army consisted of 69,232 men. In terms of equipment, the Latvian military during its first independence period (1919–1940) was armed mostly with British weapons and gear. The average Latvian infantry soldier in

SECTION 50

#1732783009099

7176-1075: The North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO), Latvia has undertaken obligations to strengthen common defence within the scope of its capabilities. For this purpose, every NATO member state delegates its military formations — fast response, well-armed and well-equipped units capable to operate beyond the NATO's borders. After joining NATO, the foundation of the Latvian defence system has shifted from total territorial defence to collective defence. Latvia has acquired small but highly professional troop units that have been fully integrated into NATO structures. NAF soldiers have participated in international operations since 1996. Specialized units (e.g. units of military medics, military police, unexploded ordnance neutralizers, military divers and special forces ) have been established in order to facilitate and enhance NAF participation in international operations. Special attention has been paid to establishing

7314-724: The Phnom Penh - Battambang line, Cambodia . In 1953 both trains were attacked by the Viet-Minh guerrillas who destroyed or mined stone bridges when passing by. Fulgencio Batista 's army operated an armoured train during the Cuban Revolution ; it was derailed and destroyed during the Battle of Santa Clara , and is commemorated by the Tren Blindado (armoured train) memorial. An improvised armoured train named

7452-551: The Red Army's 24th Territorial Rifle Corps . The corps comprised the 181st and 183rd Rifle Divisions. In September the corps contained 24,416 men but in autumn more than 800 officers and about 10,000 instructors and soldiers were discharged. The arrests of soldiers continued in the following months. In June 1940, the entire Territorial Corps was sent to Litene camp. Before leaving the camp, Latvians drafted in 1939 were demobilised, and replaced by about 4,000 Russian soldiers from

7590-687: The Russo-Japanese War . Armoured trains were also used during the Mexican Revolution (1910–1920) and World War I (1914–1918). The most intensive use of armoured trains was during the Russian Civil War (1918–1920). During the Chinese Civil War , White Russian emigrants in the service of Marshal Zhang Zuchang built 14 armored trains in 1924–1928. Some of them, for example "Peking" ("Beijing") were built on

7728-530: The Second World War were regarded as sovereign despite their territories being under foreign occupation; their governance resumed as soon as the occupation had ended. The government of Kuwait was in a similar situation vis-à-vis the Iraqi occupation of its country during 1990–1991. The government of Republic of China (ROC) was generally recognized as sovereign over China from 1911 to 1971 despite

7866-476: The Soviet Union and governed locally by their pro-Soviet functionaries. When in 1991 Latvia, Lithuania and Estonia re-enacted independence, it was done so on the basis of continuity directly from the pre-Soviet republics. Another complicated sovereignty scenario can arise when regime itself is the subject of dispute. In the case of Poland , the People's Republic of Poland which governed Poland from 1945 to 1989

8004-497: The T-34-85 tank, instead of turrets from LT-35 . The Red Army had a large number of armoured trains at the start of World War II but many were lost in 1941. Trains built later in the war tended to be fitted with T-34 or KV series tank turrets . Others were fitted as specialist anti-aircraft batteries. A few were fitted as heavy artillery batteries often using guns taken from ships. Canada used an armoured train to patrol

8142-857: The USSR invaded the Baltic States , and its railway artillery cannons were transferred to the Soviet army . Lithuania had three armoured trains, named after the Grand Dukes of Lithuania : Gediminas , Kęstutis and Algirdas . The armoured trains were used from 1920 to 1935. The first of them, Gediminas , was used in the Polish–Lithuanian War . After the First World War the use of armoured trains declined. They were used in China in

8280-500: The Zvolen railway factory in very short time – Štefánik was built just in 14 days, Hurban in 11 days. Boiler plates were used as the armor. In case of tank cars, whole tanks were used – LT-35 tanks were placed at the platform wagon and armored construction was built around the hull. Trains saw combat near Stará Kremnička, Čremošné, around Brezno. Later they were abandoned near Harmanec. Some of train cars were later used by Germans for training and for patrolling. Two original cars from

8418-405: The changing international situation led to the cancellation of the programme, with all remaining railway-based missiles finally being deactivated in 2005. Regular armoured trains have continued to be used by the post-Soviet Russian military. Two were deployed during the Second Chechen War , assisting in the Battle of Grozny (1999–2000) ; one was sent to the 2008 Russo-Georgian War . Outside of

SECTION 60

#1732783009099

8556-477: The divine right of kings , or to a social contract (i.e. popular sovereignty ). Max Weber offered a first categorization of political authority and legitimacy with the categories of traditional, charismatic and legal-rational. With "sovereignty" meaning holding supreme, independent authority over a region or state, "internal sovereignty" refers to the internal affairs of the state and the location of supreme power within it. A state that has internal sovereignty

8694-401: The general will , is inalienable, for the will cannot be transmitted; it is indivisible since it is essentially general; it is infallible and always right, determined and limited in its power by the common interest; it acts through laws. Law is the decision of the general will regarding some object of common interest, but though the general will is always right and desires only good, its judgment

8832-409: The lois royales , the fundamental laws of the French monarchy which regulated matters such as succession, are natural laws and are binding on the French sovereign. Despite his commitment to absolutism, Bodin held some moderate opinions on how government should in practice be carried out. He held that although the sovereign is not obliged to, it is advisable for him, as a practical expedient, to convene

8970-410: The " Krajina express " ( Krajina ekspres ) was used during the Croatian War of Independence of the early 1990s by the army of the Republic of Serbian Krajina . Composed of three fighting cars and three freight cars hooked to the front to protect it from mine blasts, the train carried a M18 Hellcat with a 76 mm cannon, a 40 mm Bofors, a 20 mm cannon, twin 57 mm rocket launchers and

9108-409: The " Peace of Westphalia ", but for different reasons. He created the first modern version of the social contract (or contractarian) theory, arguing that to overcome the "nasty, brutish and short" quality of life without the cooperation of other human beings, people must join in a "commonwealth" and submit to a "Soveraigne [ sic ] Power" that can compel them to act in the common good. Hobbes

9246-617: The .303 (7,7mm) caliber, although the army also kept Russian PM M1910 machine guns in reserve. In general, the Latvian Army lacked automatic weapons of all calibers, and the ones it did have were becoming increasingly outdated towards the start of World War II (most of the weapons in service were from World War I). In terms of heavy weapons, the Latvian military had acquired a rather large number of different artillery systems in different calibers, around 400 artillery pieces in total (although most of these were outdated and worn out due to heavy use and age). The main artillery gun for infantry support

9384-434: The 1930s is believed to have carried 31,4 kg of equipment in the winter months, and around 29,1 kg in the summer. The main service rifle was the British Pattern 1914 Enfield , and the amount of standard issue ammunition for an infantry soldier was 45 rounds of .303 (7,7mm) caliber. In addition, troops had access to three different types of hand grenades (defense, attack and rifle grenades). The Latvian Army had acquired

9522-606: The 1949 victory of the Communists in the Chinese civil war and the retreat of the ROC to Taiwan . The ROC represented China at the United Nations until 1971, when the People's Republic of China obtained the UN seat. The ROC political status as a state became increasingly disputed; it became commonly known as Taiwan . The International Committee of the Red Cross is commonly mistaken to be sovereign. It has been granted various degrees of special privileges and legal immunities in many countries, including Belgium, France, Switzerland, Australia, Russia, South Korea, South Africa and

9660-492: The 1990s, personnel of the NAF has been deployed to a number of peacekeeping, training and support missions – the NATO Stabilisation Force in Bosnia and Herzegovina ( SFOR ) from 1996 to 2004; the Kosovo Force (KFOR) from 2000 to 2009; the NATO training mission in Iraq ( NTM-I ) from 2005 to 2006, the NATO International Security Assistance Force ( ISAF ) from 2003 to 2015, the Resolute Support Mission from 2015 to 2021 and others. In 2007, Latvia abolished conscription, switching to

9798-445: The Estonian or Lithuanian armies against a possible enemy, and so the Latvian military planned its actions and doctrine in almost complete isolation, oblivious to whatever its neighbours to the north (Estonia) or south (Lithuania) did. This ultimately led to flawed and questionable choices in creating defense plans against both Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union (there were separate plans towards both of these possible aggressors), since

9936-664: The European union have eroded the sovereignty of traditional states. The centuries long movement which developed a global system of sovereign states came to an end when the excesses of World War II made it clear to nations that some curtailment of the rights of sovereign states was necessary if future cruelties and injustices were to be prevented. In the years immediately prior to the war, National Socialist theorist Carl Schmitt argued that sovereignty had supremacy over constitutional and international constraints arguing that states as sovereigns could not be judged and punished. After

10074-729: The Holy Roman Empire) by the Holy Roman Emperor, granting them seats in the Reichstag , at the time the closest permanent equivalent to an UN-type general assembly; confirmed 1620. These sovereign rights were never deposed, only the territories were lost. Over 100 modern states maintain full diplomatic relations with the order, and the UN awarded it observer status. The governments-in-exile of many European states (for instance, Norway, Netherlands or Czechoslovakia ) during

10212-472: The Latvian higher command was unsure as to how Latvia's neighbours would react in the event such a conflict started. After the Soviet occupation of Latvia in June 1940, during which the armed forces did not intervene following orders, the annihilation of the Latvian Army began. The army was first renamed the People's Army of Latvia ( Latvian : Latvijas Tautas armija ) and in September–November 1940 –

10350-583: The Medieval period as the de jure rights of nobility and royalty. Sovereignty reemerged as a concept in the late 16th century, a time when civil wars had created a craving for a stronger central authority when monarchs had begun to gather power onto their own hands at the expense of the nobility, and the modern nation state was emerging. Jean Bodin , partly in reaction to the chaos of the French wars of religion , presented theories of sovereignty calling for

10488-603: The National Armed Forces is to: The Latvian armed forces were first formed soon after the new state was proclaimed in November 1918 after World War I , with the official founding of the Latvian Armed Forces  [ lv ] ( Latvian : Latvijas Bruņotie spēki ) on July 10, 1919, when the North Latvian  [ lv ] and South Latvian Brigade  [ lv ] , which were loyal to

10626-646: The Parliament and State President was a part of the National Armed Forces until its merger with the Military Police in 2009. Latvian National Armed Forces consist of the Regular Force, National Guard and Reserve. On January 1, 2007, conscription was abolished and since then the Regular Force consists of only professional soldiers. Recruits must be 18 years of age or older. As of June 2018, there were 5500 active duty soldiers, 8000 national guards. By

10764-524: The Polish Defensive War in 1939 is that when German planes attacked the railroads, it was usually the tracks themselves. As late as 17 September, three fresh divisions in the east were moved westward by train. On 18 September, three more divisions followed. This in turn prompted Nazi Germany to reintroduce armoured trains into its own armies. Germany then used them to a small degree during World War II. They introduced significant designs of

10902-540: The Roman Catholic Church with little ability to interfere with the internal affairs of many European states. It is a myth, however, that the Treaties of Westphalia created a new European order of equal sovereign states. In international law , sovereignty means that a government possesses full control over affairs within a territorial or geographical area or limit. Determining whether a specific entity

11040-507: The US, and soon in Ireland. The Committee is a private organisation governed by Swiss law. Just as the office of head of state can be vested jointly in several persons within a state, the sovereign jurisdiction over a single political territory can be shared jointly by two or more consenting powers, notably in the form of a condominium . Likewise the member states of international organizations may voluntarily bind themselves by treaty to

11178-689: The United Nations will be affected by a decision of the General Assembly upon the recommendation of the Security Council." Sovereignty may be recognized even when the sovereign body possesses no territory or its territory is under partial or total occupation by another power. The Holy See was in this position between the annexation in 1870 of the Papal States by Italy and the signing of the Lateran Treaties in 1929,

11316-515: The air, and air transportation was an even more flexible way to relocate firepower to a new location. However, there have been occasional uses in the late 20th century and early 21st century. Russia has used improvised armoured trains during the Second Chechen War (1999–2009) and in its invasion of Ukraine (2022–present). Armoured trains were historically fighting systems, equipped with heavy weapons such as artillery. An exception

11454-499: The approval of the Saeima . The Cabinet also supported the proposed transitional period from 2023 to 2028, that the length of the service would be 10 months and that service can be postponed until 26 years of age. Alternative service options would involve serving in a National Guard unit on a part-time basis for 5 years; civil service or special military courses for students. The National Armed Forces consist of: The Security Service of

11592-646: The area around Moscow. On June 10, the corps' senior officers were sent to Russia where they were arrested and most of them shot. On June 14 at least 430 officers were arrested and sent to Gulag camps. After the German attack against the Soviet Union, from June 29 to July 1 more than 1980 Latvian soldiers were demobilised, fearing that they might turn their weapons against the Russian commissars and officers. Simultaneously, many soldiers and officers deserted and when

11730-474: The backbone of the front in critical early stages of conflict. Carriages were former goods carriages and at first armor was limited to wood and sand, but later steel plating, machine guns, and cannons were added. Estonia later created a regiment for its armoured trains in 1934, called the Armoured Train Regiment , which consisted of 3 armoured trains. The regiment was dissolved in 1940, after

11868-553: The continent, the Peace of Westphalia in 1648 established the notion of territorial sovereignty as a norm of noninterference in the affairs of other states, so-called Westphalian sovereignty , even though the treaty itself reaffirmed the multiple levels of the sovereignty of the Holy Roman Empire. This resulted as a natural extension of the older principle of cuius regio, eius religio (Whose realm, his religion), leaving

12006-588: The corps crossed the Latvian border into the Russian SFSR , only about 3,000 Latvian soldiers remained. During and after World War II, many former veterans were a part of the fighters of the anti-Soviet National Partisan resistance movement opposing the continued Soviet occupation. The origin of the current Latvian armed forces can be traced to the establishment of the Latvian National Guard or Zemessardze on August 23, 1991, which served as

12144-544: The end of 2017, there were 7900 registered reserve soldiers, of whom about 5000 were retired professional soldiers. According to the National Defence Concept, the National Armed Forces are to maintain 25000 militarily trained personnel, including 6500 professional soldiers, 8005 National Guards and 3010 (trained) reserve soldiers. Reserve training began in 2015. On April 5, 2023, Latvia decided to re-introduce compulsory national defense service in response to

12282-421: The end of the 1930s by purchasing a small number of cars, trucks, artillery tractors and motorbikes, but at the start of World War II, only a small portion of the Latvian military had access to motorized vehicles. In terms of armoured vehicles, the Latvian military had six armoured trains , a Carden Loyd tankette , seven armoured cars and 24 tanks of various designs and combat abilities. In terms of air power, at

12420-683: The end of the war the Bolshevik forces had 103 armoured trains of all types. The Czechoslovak Legion used heavily armed and armoured trains to control large lengths of the Trans-Siberian Railway (and of Russia itself) during the Russian Civil War at the end of World War I. Estonia built a total of 13 armoured trains during the Estonian War of Independence : six on broad-gauge and seven on narrow-gauge railways. The first three armoured trains with fully volunteer crews formed

12558-465: The expressed and institutionally recognised right to exercise control over a territory. De facto sovereignty means sovereignty exists in practice , irrespective of anything legally accepted as such, usually in writing. Cooperation and respect of the populace; control of resources in, or moved into, an area; means of enforcement and security; and ability to carry out various functions of state all represent measures of de facto sovereignty. When control

12696-678: The first organized defence force after the restoration of the independence of Latvia. Unlike other Soviet republics, it is one of the military forces in the Baltic states that were not formed from the Baltic Military District . From the beginning, the reconstituted defense forces were modeled according to NATO standards with assistance from the United States , the United Kingdom , Sweden etc. A notable moment in

12834-565: The formal Russian military hierarchy, Russian-backed militants in the Donbas region of Ukraine were pictured operating a homemade armoured train in late 2015. An armoured train made up of two diesel locomotives powering eight various railcars, which carried anti-aircraft weaponry and unknown cargo supported the southern flank of the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine . A Russian Railway Troops armoured train named Yenisei used in Ukraine

12972-407: The government is divided into different levels. External sovereignty concerns the relationship between sovereign power and other states. For example, the United Kingdom uses the following criterion when deciding under what conditions other states recognise a political entity as having sovereignty over some territory; "Sovereignty." A government which exercises de facto administrative control over

13110-563: The history of the armed forces is the accession to the North Atlantic Treaty Organization on 29 March 2004, after Latvia received a Membership Action Plan in 1999 and, ultimately, an invite was extended to it and six other countries during the 2002 Prague summit . Previously, Latvia co-founded the North Atlantic Cooperation Council in 1991 and joined the Partnership for Peace program in 1994. Since

13248-553: The infantry battalion BALTBAT and naval squadron BALTRON which are available for peacekeeping operations. Currently, NATO is involved in the patrolling and protection of the Latvian air space as the Latvian military does not have the means to do so. For this goal a rotating force of four NATO fighters , which comes from different nations and switches at two or three month intervals, is based in Lithuania to cover all three Baltic states (see Baltic Air Policing ). After joining

13386-437: The inside of the train, especially in earlier armoured trains. For the most part, they were used during the late 19th and the early 20th centuries, when they offered an innovative way to quickly move large amounts of firepower into a new location. Most countries have discontinued their use since road vehicles became much more powerful and offered more flexibility, train tracks proved too vulnerable to sabotage and attacks from

13524-809: The last one was withdrawn in November 1944. A 6-pounder wagon from one of these trains is preserved at the Tank Museum . A miniature armoured train ran on the 15-inch gauge Romney Hythe and Dymchurch Railway . The Imperial Japanese Army also utilized armored trains. First in the 1920s, to guard the rail lines in Manchuria and later when they engaged Chinese NRA and CPC troops in Second Sino-Japanese War (1937–1945). In 1940 Italy had twelve armed trains ready for use (again under Regia Marina control), nine for anti-ship duties and three for AA duties; six were assigned to La Spezia , and

13662-471: The late 1930s, but it is unclear how many were delivered and in service at the start of World War II. In terms of individual equipment, the standard helmet were surplus M1916/18 Stahlhelms or Adrian helmets . In terms of vehicles, the Latvian military was seriously lacking in motorized transport, and thus had to rely mostly on railroads and horse-drawn carriages for most of its logistics needs. The military leadership did make an effort to solve this problem at

13800-400: The legitimacy of who is in control of a state and the legitimacy of how they exercise their power. Tilly references an example where nobles in parts of Europe were allowed to engage in private rights and Ustages , a constitution by Catalonia recognized that right which demonstrates empirical sovereignty. As David Samuel points out, this is an important aspect of a state because there has to be

13938-611: The main Western description of the meaning and power of a State. In particular, the " Social contract " as a mechanism for establishing sovereignty was suggested and, by 1800, widely accepted, especially in the new United States and France , though also in Great Britain to a lesser extent. Thomas Hobbes , in Leviathan (1651) put forward a conception of sovereignty similar to Bodin's, which had just achieved legal status in

14076-565: The model of the First World War of the type " Zaamurets " (later the Czech "Orlik"). The Spanish Civil War saw a little use of armoured trains, though World War II (1939–1945) saw more. The French used them during the First Indochina War (1946–1954), a number of countries had armoured trains during the Cold War, and they were used during the Yugoslav wars of the 1990s and the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine . The most successful armed train

14214-562: The ongoing Russian invasion in Ukraine . The first voluntary conscription will begin on July 1, 2023, and volunteers must apply by May 15, 2023. The law foresees two types of service: military and alternative (civil service). Males born after January 1, 2004, are subject to mandatory service, while males and females aged 18 to 27 can apply voluntarily. The law exempts certain individuals, including those whose health status does not comply with service requirements, sole guardians of children, sole caretakers of dependents, and those who have served in

14352-644: The origin of power), provides that the people are the legitimate sovereign. Rousseau considered sovereignty to be inalienable; he condemned the distinction between the origin and the exercise of sovereignty, a distinction upon which constitutional monarchy or representative democracy is founded. John Locke , and Montesquieu are also key figures in the unfolding of the concept of sovereignty; their views differ with Rousseau and with Hobbes on this issue of alienability. The second book of Jean-Jacques Rousseau's Du Contrat Social, ou Principes du droit politique (1762) deals with sovereignty and its rights. Sovereignty, or

14490-454: The other six to Taranto . One of them was heavily involved in the Battle of the Alps , shelling French forts in support of an Italian attack towards Menton , and suffering heavy damage by return fire. By 1943, eight trains had been deployed to Sicily ; Allied air superiority did not allow them to have any meaningful role, and eventually they were all abandoned and destroyed by their crews. In

14628-510: The people in return for his maintaining their physical safety—led him to conclude that if and when the ruler fails, the people recover their ability to protect themselves by forming a new contract. Hobbes's theories decisively shape the concept of sovereignty through the medium of social contract theories. Jean-Jacques Rousseau 's (1712–1778) definition of popular sovereignty (with early antecedents in Francisco Suárez 's theory of

14766-723: The place and time of concern, and reside within the same organization. The term arises from the unattested Vulgar Latin * superanus (itself a derived form of Latin super – "over") meaning "chief", "ruler". Its spelling, which has varied since the word's first appearance in English in the 14th century, was influenced by the English word " reign ". The concept of sovereignty has had multiple conflicting components, varying definitions, and diverse and inconsistent applications throughout history. The current notion of state sovereignty contains four aspects: territory, population, authority and recognition. According to Stephen D. Krasner ,

14904-645: The preparations to face a German invasion ; these were initially armed with QF 6 pounder 6 cwt Hotchkiss guns and six Bren Guns. They were operated by Royal Engineer crews and manned by Royal Armoured Corps troops. In late 1940 preparations began to hand the trains over to the Polish Army in the West , who operated them until 1942 . They continued in use in Scotland and were operated by the Home Guard until

15042-496: The railway workshop located at Ajmer , India . One sent to Mesopotamia (now Iraq ) by sea route for the Mesopotamian Campaign . Each train consists six wagons, Two wagons of each trains were ceiling less, each train consists 12-pounder guns, two Maxim heavy machine guns, two mine-exploding wagons, search light truck and a dynamo telegraph accommodation truck. The Bolshevik forces in the Russian Civil War used

15180-495: The revision of the concept of sovereignty was made explicit with the Responsibility to Protect agreement endorsed by all member states of the United Nations. If a state fails this responsibility either by perpetrating massive injustice or being incapable of protecting its citizens, then outsiders may assume that responsibility despite prior norms forbidding such interference in a nation's sovereignty. European integration

15318-428: The right to decide some matters in the upbringing of their children independent of societal regulation, and municipalities do not have unlimited jurisdiction in local matters, thus neither parents nor municipalities have absolute sovereignty. Theorists have diverged over the desirability of increased absoluteness. A key element of sovereignty in a legalistic sense is that of exclusivity of jurisdiction also described as

15456-403: The ruler (also known as the sovereign ); natural law and divine law confer upon the sovereign the right to rule. And the sovereign is not above divine law or natural law. He is above ( i.e. not bound by) only positive law , that is, laws made by humans. He emphasized that a sovereign is bound to observe certain basic rules derived from the divine law, the law of nature or reason, and the law that

15594-582: The second inside the Italian capital (since in 1869 the Palazzo di Malta and the Villa Malta receive extraterritorial rights, in this way becoming the only "sovereign" territorial possessions of the modern Order), which is the last existing heir to one of several once militarily significant, crusader states of sovereign military orders . In 1607 its Grand masters were also made Reichsfürst (princes of

15732-488: The sovereign, proven illegitimate or otherwise contested and defeated for sovereignty to be genuine. International law, competing branches of government, and authorities reserved for subordinate entities (such as federated states or republics) represent legal infringements on exclusivity. Social institutions such as religious bodies, corporations, and competing political parties might represent de facto infringements on exclusivity. De jure , or legal, sovereignty concerns

15870-495: The start of World War II the Latvian Air Force had around 30 fighter planes and 24 scout planes , of which only some were the relatively modern Gloster Gladiator fighters, 24 training and 6 seaplanes. Thus, the Latvian military during the interwar era was more or less comparable both in equipment and size to its other Baltic neighbours, such as Estonia , Lithuania and Finland. The Armed Forces were also supported by

16008-415: The term could also be understood in four different ways: Often, these four aspects all appear together, but this is not necessarily the case – they are not affected by one another, and there are historical examples of states that were non-sovereign in one aspect while at the same time being sovereign in another of these aspects. According to Immanuel Wallerstein , another fundamental feature of sovereignty

16146-476: The train was leading, with the regulator controlled by a mechanical connection. The intention was that the infantry, with artillery support from the train's guns, was to hold off a hostile landing force until reinforcements could be deployed. Italy fitted twelve armed trains (under the control of the Regia Marina ) to protect its Adriatic coast from raids on part of the k.u.k Kriegsmarine ; each train

16284-707: The train were protected with 5–20 mm thick armour. These trains were used by the Soviet Army to intimidate nationalist paramilitary units in 1990 during the early stages of the First Nagorno-Karabakh War . Towards the end of the Cold War , both superpowers began to develop railway-based ICBMs mounted on armoured trains; the Soviets deployed the SS-24 missile in 1987, but budget costs and

16422-535: The trustees of public authority more and means to abuse their power, the more the Government has to have force to contain the people, the more force the Sovereign should have in turn to contain the Government," with the understanding that the Sovereign is "a collective being of wonder" (Book II, Chapter I) resulting from "the general will" of the people, and that "what any man, whoever he may be, orders on his own,

16560-591: The twenties and early thirties during the Chinese Civil War, most notably by the warlord Zhang Zongchang , who employed refugee Russians to man them. Poland used armoured trains extensively during the invasion of Poland . One observer noted that "Poland had only few armoured trains, but their officers and soldiers were fighting well. Again and again they were emerging from a cover in thick forests, disturbing German lines". One under-appreciated aspect of so many Polish armoured trains being deployed during

16698-453: The ultimate arbiter in all disputes on the territory. Specifically, the degree to which decisions made by a sovereign entity might be contradicted by another authority. Along these lines, the German sociologist Max Weber proposed that sovereignty is a community's monopoly on the legitimate use of force ; and thus any group claiming the right to violence must either be brought under the yoke of

16836-637: The unit's Honorary Colonel, Sir Julian Goldsmid , was a director). The British Army employed armoured trains during the Second Boer War , most famously a train that was extemporised in the railway workshops at Ladysmith just before the siege was closed round the town. On 15 November 1899 it left the town on reconnaissance manned by a company of the Royal Dublin Fusiliers under the command of Captain Aylmer Haldane ,

16974-503: The volunteer Aizsargi Organization . However, the most crucial problem and flaw for both the Latvian military and other militaries of the Baltic states on the eve of World War II had to do with the failure to organize effective military cooperation between all the Baltic states in case of a new war in the region. The Latvian command in the interwar period had given very little attention towards any possible coordination of forces with either

17112-444: The wagon contained fifty ports for riflemen. The wagon was effective for its original purpose, but vulnerability to artillery rendered such wagons of comparatively little use during later stages of the war. In August 1864, a Confederate raiding party disabled a Baltimore and Ohio Railroad locomotive pushing an armoured wagon, and then piled ties around the armoured wagon and set them afire. In 1884 Charles Gervaise Boxall (1852–1914),

17250-441: The wagon from the pushing locomotive. The sides of the wagon were sheathed with 2.5-inch (6.4 cm) oak planks covered with 0.5-inch (1.3 cm) boiler plate. The end of the wagon around the howitzer was fitted with hinged 2-foot (61 cm) panels which could be temporarily lifted to aim and fire the howitzer and then lowered to protect the crew of six men loading the howitzer with canister shot or grapeshot . The remainder of

17388-479: The world to pre World War II norms of sovereignty. There exists perhaps no conception the meaning of which is more controversial than that of sovereignty. It is an indisputable fact that this conception, from the moment when it was introduced into political science until the present day, has never had a meaning which was universally agreed upon. Lassa Oppenheim (30-03-1858 – 07-10-1919), an authority on international law An important factor of sovereignty

17526-640: The Štefánik train are preserved – the tank car (with original LT-35 tank inside) and machine gun car, and they are exhibited in the Museum of Slovak National Uprising in Banská Bystrica . Another train is exhibited in Zvolen – it is a replica of armoured train Hurban, which was built for the movie Deň, ktorý neumrie . This replica differs in comparison with the original trains by having bigger turrets from

17664-549: Was a practical expression of this circumscription when the Westphalian principle of non-intervention was no longer observed for cases where the United Nations or another international organization endorsed a political or military action. Previously, actions in Yugoslavia, Bosnia, Kosovo , Somalia , Rwanda , Haiti , Cambodia or Liberia would have been regarded as illegitimate interference in internal affairs. In 2005,

17802-545: Was a single armoured wagon built to defend the Philadelphia, Wilmington and Baltimore Railroad . The railroad had been attacked by southern forces to prevent transport of Union soldiers to the front, and snipers were discouraging men attempting to repair the damage. Baldwin Locomotive Works modified a baggage wagon in late April 1861. A 24-pounder howitzer was placed on a swivel mount at the opposite end of

17940-417: Was eventually destroyed by its own crew lest it fall into enemy hands during Operation Storm , Croatia's successful effort to reclaim the territories under occupation by Serbs. The Army of Republika Srpska operated a similar train that was ambushed and destroyed in October 1992 at the entrance to the town of Gradačac by Bosnian Muslim forces that included a T-55 tank . The wreckage was later converted into

18078-514: Was expressing the idea that the emperor exercised a rather absolute form of sovereignty that originated in the people, although he did not use the term expressly. Ulpian's statements were known in medieval Europe , but sovereignty was an important concept in medieval times. Medieval monarchs were not sovereign, at least not strongly so, because they were constrained by, and shared power with, their feudal aristocracy . Furthermore, both were strongly constrained by custom. Sovereignty existed during

18216-493: Was later reported in more detail; it was made up of two locomotives and eight cars. Ukrainian sources accused Russia of stealing Ukrainian Railways assets to build Yenisei. Russia released video of another armoured train in June 2022. In total, Russia's armoured train fleet consist of four known trains: Yenisei , Baikal , Volga and Amur . Armoured trams have also been used, although not purpose-built. The just-formed Red Army used at least one armoured tram during

18354-531: Was not inevitable; "it arose because of a particular conjuncture of social and political interests in Europe." Once states are recognized as sovereign, they are rarely recolonized, merged, or dissolved. Today, no state is sovereign in the sense they were prior to the Second World War. Transnational governance agreements and institutions, the globalized economy, and pooled sovereignty unions such as

18492-556: Was overrun by foreign forces in the Iraq War of 2003 , Iraq had not been annexed by any country, so sovereignty over it had not been claimed by any foreign state (despite the facts on the ground ). Alternatively, independence can be lost completely when sovereignty itself becomes the subject of dispute. The pre-World War II administrations of Latvia , Lithuania and Estonia maintained an exile existence (and considerable international recognition) whilst their territories were annexed by

18630-448: Was supplemented by a support one. Each armed train was formed by a FS Class 290 locomotive, three to five gun cars, two to four ammo cars and a command car; there were three types of armed train, one with 152 mm guns, another with 120 mm guns and the last with 76 mm AA guns. These trains were considered overall a success, and blunted attempted Austro-Hungarian raids on the Italian coast. Two armoured trains were produced in

18768-581: Was the British Ordnance QF 18-pounder field gun and British QF 4.5-inch howitzer , although there were also several types of French, German and Russian artillery guns in reserve. For anti-tank weapons, in 1938 the army received the Austrian 47 mm Cannone da 47/32 anti-tank cannons, which were reasonably effective against early World War II tanks. For infantry mortars, a number of 81mm mortars were acquired from Finland some time around

18906-520: Was the US " White Train ", the Department of Energy Nuclear Weapons Transport Train, armoured and escorted by personnel armed with personal weapons. An armoured train is characterized by the armour from which it takes its name. It is not to be confused with railway artillery , which includes a large-caliber gun and its crew, but without special protection from them. Trains simply equipped with light weapons without elaborate protective devices, e. g.

19044-409: Was thus the first to write that relations between the people and the sovereign were based on negotiation rather than natural submission. His expediency argument attracted many of the early proponents of sovereignty. Hobbes strengthened the definition of sovereignty beyond either Westphalian or Bodin's, by saying that it must be: Hobbes' hypothesis—that the ruler's sovereignty is contracted to him by

#98901