Basra's not Belfast: the British Army, ‘Small Wars’ and Iraq

This article examines British Army operations in Iraq. It focuses on the causes of the army's apparent failure to live up to its reputation for the conduct of small wars. The paper discusses the British experience of small wars in the context of Iraq, the influence of doctrine and strategy, and the political and moral factors that shaped the army's performance. The paper's conclusions suggest that the Iraq War may cause a significant reappraisal, not just of military doctrine and strategy, but also of Britain's role in future small wars.     

The multidimensional nature of the Boko Haram conflict

ABSTRACT

The debate concerning the Nigerian terrorist Boko Haram is typically simplified across two false dichotomies. First, it is treated as either a local conflict in northeast Nigeria with its epicentre in Borno State or part of a broader conflict in Northwest Africa (and beyond), encompassing northern Cameroon, southern Chad, Niger, and reaching into Libya and Mali. The second dichotomy concerns whether it is animated by local material conditions on the ground, or is part of a broader anti-West jihad. The Boko Haram insurgency is not that simple. It is, rather, a multidimensional conflict and can change overtime.     

基于联合时频滤波的多目标回波信号分离算法

针对弹道中段多目标回波信号分离的问题,提出了基于联合时频滤波的多目标信号分离算法。该算法先对多目标回波信号进行自相关处理和峰值提取,得到目标信号的周期,接着用该周期对回波信号的Gabor变换和PWVD变换结果进行分段,然后将各段时频图相乘,获得新的时频支撑域,最后用新的时频支撑域对回波信号进行时频滤波,克服了交叉项的干扰和时频聚集性不高的缺点,分离出了不同周期的目标信号。仿真结果证明了该方法的有效性和先进性。     

Book reviews

Soviet Nuclear Strategy from Stalin to Gorbachev: a Revolution in Soviet Military and Political Thinking. By Honore M. Catudal. Mansell, London (1988), ISBN 0–7201–2000–4, £25.00

The Military: More Than Just a Job? Edited by Charles C. Moskos and Frank R. Wood. Pergamon‐Brassey's, London (1988), ISBN 0–08–034321‐X, £17.00 ($30.00)

Douglas Haig, 1861–1928. By Gerard J. de Groot. Unwin Hyman, London (1988), ISBN 004 4401922, £20.00

Defence Policy Making. A Comparative Analysis. Edited by G. M. Dillon. Leicester University Press, Leicester (1988), ISBN 0–715–1268–5, £10.95

The Future of U.K. Air Power. Edited by P. Sabin. Brassey's, London (1988), ISBN 0–08–035825‐X (hardcover), 0–08–036256–7 (flexicover), hardcover £18.95 ($34.00), flexicover £9.95 ($17.95)     

环面上动力系统的次谐分枝与浑沌

如何理解smale马蹄的产生是分枝理论的一个基本问题。研究一类环面上的Van der Pol方程在周期扰动下的动力学行为。应用Melnikov方法得到了浑沌与次谐分枝存在的参数区域,证明了该扰动系统可经过有限次次谐分枝而导致浑沌的有趣事实。     

Using multiple searchers in constrained-path,moving-target search problems

The search theory open literature has paid little, if any, attention to the multiple-searcher, moving-target search problem. We develop an optimal branch-and-bound procedure and six heuristics for solving constrained-path problems with multiple searchers. Our optimal procedure outperforms existing approaches when used with only a single searcher. For more than one searcher, the time needed to guarantee an optimal solution is prohibitive. Our heuristics represent a wide variety of approaches: One solves partial problems optimally, two use paths based on maximizing the expected number of detections, two are genetic algorithm implementations, and one is local search with random restarts. A heuristic based on the expected number of detections obtains solutions within 2% of the best known for each one-, two-, and three-searcher test problem considered. For one- and two-searcher problems, the same heuristic's solution time is less than that of other heuristics. For three-searcher problems, a genetic algorithm implementation obtains the best-known solution in as little as 20% of other heuristic solution times. © 1996 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.     

Some elementary ideas concerning the complexity of system structure

A system of iid Bernoulli components is the starting point in the statistical theory of reliability. This simplification allows for the development of a rich, though elementary, theory for the structure of the system. Two representations play a prominent role in the study of structural reliability. One is the minimal path set representation and the other is the signature representation. By combining the two representations with the Gibbs measure for the state of components, one obtains terms that can be interpreted as the complexity of the system structure. © 2010 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Naval Research Logistics, 2010