Small states and their armies: Restructuring the militia framework of the Israel defense force

The British provided unprecedented shelter, training and supplies that made possible the revival of a new and better Belgian Army after the crushing German victories in 1940. Starting in Wales in 1940 as a small and disunited group, the Belgians improved more than any of the Allied exile ground forces. By 1944, their independent brigade fought well in Normandy and Belgium, restoring national pride and proving the worth of British help. The parallel and interdependent processes between the British and their Continental guests allows this analysis of the Anglo‐Belgian experience to be useful in considering British Army interactions with the other exiles as well.     

The power of paired sample tests

The power of the component randomization test for the paired sample location test is compared to the power of the parametric test for paired comparisons using the sum of differences distribution. This analysis is presented in the form of operating characteristic curves for normal, exponential, uniform and absolute lambda observations over a range of small sample sizes.     

Clausewitz and Low-Intensity Conflict

The end of the Cold War led some commentators to question the relevance of Clausewitz's thought in a strategic environment where low-intensity conflict (LIC) would predominate. On the contrary, however, Clausewitz's understanding of the intensity of warfare, and its relationship with the political environment of any given time, makes his thinking compatible with changing historical circumstances. The current War on Terror, for example, can be comfortably accommodated within Clausewitz's concept of war. However, a move away from Clausewitz in US doctrine has been coupled with a rejection of LIC in favour of the erroneous notion of ‘operations other than war’. Consequently, such doctrine lacks the clarity required for its proper dissemination.     

Landmarks in defense literature

A soldier's Duty By Marshal K. Rokossovsky Progress Publishers, Moscow (1985)     

Robust capacity planning in semiconductor manufacturing

We present a stochastic programming approach to capacity planning under demand uncertainty in semiconductor manufacturing. Given multiple demand scenarios together with associated probabilities, our aim is to identify a set of tools that is a good compromise for all these scenarios. More precisely, we formulate a mixed‐integer program in which expected value of the unmet demand is minimized subject to capacity and budget constraints. This is a difficult two‐stage stochastic mixed‐integer program which cannot be solved to optimality in a reasonable amount of time. We instead propose a heuristic that can produce near‐optimal solutions. Our heuristic strengthens the linear programming relaxation of the formulation with cutting planes and performs limited enumeration. Analyses of the results in some real‐life situations are also presented. © 2005 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Naval Research Logistics, 2005.     

Military Innovation Studies: Multidisciplinary or Lacking Discipline?1

This article explores the evolution of the field of military innovation studies, critiquing its theoretical foundations and setting out a number of challenges that must be overcome if the field is to fulfil its potential and enhance its contribution to wider disciplinary debates as well as to the practitioner community. Tensions between the main theoretical approaches to military innovation are examined as are the challenges inherent in its increasingly multidisciplinary character. The issue of whether military innovation studies constitutes a field in its own right is addressed before recommendations are made to expand the field’s research agenda, broaden its theoretical base and strengthen its multidisciplinary credibility.     

Book reviews

The Balkanization of the West: The Confluence of Postmodernism and Postcommunism By Stjepan G. Mestrovic, Routledge, London (1994). ISBN: 0-414-08755-4, Price £40.00 hardback, £13.99 paperback.

A Naval History of World War I By Professor Paul G. Halpern, UCL Press, 1994. pp. 624 ISBN 1-85728-295-7. Price £25.00

Arms Watch - SIPRI Report on the First Year of the UN Register of Conventional Arms By Edward J. Laurance, Siemon T. Wezeman and Herbert Wulf, Oxford University Press for SIPRI (1993) ISBN 019-829-1795, Price £25.00 hardback, £16.50 paperback.

A League of Airmen By J. A. Winnefeld, (Ed.), RAND, Santa Monica, ISBN 08330-1503-6, Price $30.00 (Hardcover) $15.00 (Softcover)     

Rolling‐horizon replenishment: Policies and performance analysis

We consider a rolling‐horizon (RH) replenishment modeling framework under which a buyer can update demand information and inventory status, modify order quantities committed previously, place an advanced order for a new period at the end of the RH, and move along in time seamlessly. We show that the optimal order policy for the two‐period RH problem is a dual‐threshold type for updating period(s) plus a base‐stock type for the advanced order. We provide analytical formulas and algorithms to compute the optimal thresholds and the optimal base‐stock level exactly. With our analytical results and numerical procedures, we demonstrate the significant value of RH replenishment in matching supplies to demands more closely. We also show that with RH updating (flexibility), the value of additional demand information beyond the RH diminishes quickly. © 2010 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Naval Research Logistics, 2010