At war with social theory: Instrumental and communicative action in US military doctrine during the War on Terror

As US counterinsurgency campaigns draw to a close, doctrine for asymmetric warfare written during the War on Terror has come under heavy criticism. While many have argued that this shift to ‘winning hearts and minds’ is evidence that the United States is taking humanitarianism and nation-building seriously, others argue that a wide gap exists between US counterinsurgency doctrine and the protection of civilians afflicted by conflict. In this article, I show that the latter is true by comparing theories of instrumental and communicative action to US doctrine for operational design, stability operations, and counterinsurgency. I argue that these texts treat the people as an object to be manipulated for the achievement of pre-determined self-interested strategic goals rather than members of a community that jointly designs operations to fulfill shared objectives. However, US doctrine does contain communicative elements that, if prioritized, would better support humanitarian and state-building objectives otherwise subordinated in the War on Terror.     

大型商业性建筑安全疏散策略研究

近年来,大型商业性建筑火灾事故时有发生,造成了重大损失,火灾发生时如何提高人员的疏散效率是降低伤亡率的要素.通过对大型商业性建筑火灾危险性和疏散中存在的问题进行分析,结合实际从设置消防救援窗,严格划分防火分区,合理设置疏散楼梯和安全出口,制定安全疏散预案,加强消防安全培训,充分利用声光报警等方面论述了优化大型商业性建筑人员疏散效率的策略.     

Madagascar

Despite a constitution that condemns discrimination, as well as positive efforts by all stakeholders, Madagascar is still far from meeting the desired objectives of the Southern African Development Community (SADC) Protocol on Gender and Development, or any other relevant international instruments and conventions. The establishment of an Organising Technical Committee on security sector reform for Madagascar is a positive development, which will hopefully facilitate an understanding of the multiple facets of gender and security in Madagascar as well as advancing the implementation of the instruments calling for greater female participation in the security sector.     

African maritime security and the Lomé Charter: Reality or dream?

ABSTRACT

Traditionally the African concept of security concept has been dominated by land-based conflicts with little attention being paid to maritime threats and the protection of the maritime environment. With the rapid escalation of piracy on the East Coast, the African Union (AU) was compelled to develop a joint strategy to address its changing African Maritime Domain (AMD). This was achieved by the AU’s Africa’s Integrated Maritime Strategy (AIMS 2050) in 2014, culminating in the adoption of a binding maritime security and safety charter in Lomé in 2016. The Lomé Charter should ideally focus the general provisions of AIMS 2050 so that Africa, as a continent, can take responsibility for security and economic empowerment of the AMD. This article considers various maritime security documents against the backdrop of an African context for understanding maritime security, in order to evaluate whether the Lomé Charter, as a manifestation of AIMS 2050, will realise its aspirations. Focussing on security is not sufficient and too much emphasis is placed in the Lomé Charter on restriction rather than development. Strong political will and leadership is required to facilitate implementation, identifying common security concerns to ensure better cooperative and collective strategies in a diverse implementation environment.     

The evolving menace of baby factories and trafficking in Nigeria

Trafficking in persons in Nigeria has largely targeted adults and children, particularly women and girls. Of growing concern, however, is the recent emergence and growth of sophisticated and syndicated groups involved in baby ‘factories’ and trafficking in Nigeria. This article examines the nature, actors, modus operandi and motives behind this emergent dimension of human trafficking in Nigeria. It concludes that if concerted efforts are not made to deal with the actors and dismantle the market, its profitability will embolden current actors and even encourage new entrants into the booming trade – now and in the future.     

弹药库防静电方法研究

根据弹药库静电危险场所的分类等级,以形成静电危害的3个基本条件为依据,讨论了弹药库防静电危害常用措施:设施设备静电接地、防静电工作台、人体静电防护、铺设导电(或防静电)地面以及各自防静电要求.这些措施为防止和消除弹药库的静电危害提供了根本保障.     

基于灰度信息的工程陶瓷磨削表面粗糙度评定

为了快速简单地评定和预测工程陶瓷磨削加工表面粗糙度,提出一种基于表面图像灰度信息的新方法。设定亮度140、对比度42、饱和度24、锐度9的图像采集条件,并选取灰度均值μ和均方差σ作为表征表面粗糙度的灰度参数,对数字图像进行降噪、增强和灰质化处理后,提取多幅磨削表面图像的灰度信息,绘制出表面粗糙度评定参数Ra、Rz、Ry与灰度信息平均值的关系曲线。结果表明：灰度均值和均方差与工程陶瓷磨削加工表面粗糙度呈同步递增或降低的关系,这一结果可用于快速评定任意磨削工件的表面粗糙度。     

军队人力资源培训问题的整数线性规划模型

文章研究了军队人力资源培训问题,并基于时间和费用两个指标,建立了一个满足培训时间约束且费用最省的0-1整数线性规划模型,给出了基于Lagrange松驰分解的模型求解算法。在算法中,采用一种简单可行的Lagrange乘子更新方法代替传统的次梯度法。另外,文章证明了算法获得最优解的两个充分条件,计算实例初步表明给出的算法是行之有效的。     

土质边坡工程风险分析

扼要地阐述了边坡工程事故引发的原因和边坡工程体系包含的不确定因素,从自然、社会、经济、管理等方面对这些因素进行了归纳,介绍了安全评估的故障树分析法以及由顶事件概率求底事件概率的计算公式.从技术的角度对土质开挖边坡工程体系进行了研究,建立了边坡工程故障树模型以及在此模型下边坡工程风险事件发生概率Pf的计算方法.在求解风险损失的过程中分析了传统专家调查法存在的不足,从而提出改进的专家调查法.通过工程实例,定性和定量地对边坡工程风险进行了分析,利用风险分级体系对风险的大小进行评价,为边坡工程风险管理提供了一定的依据.