THE BRAZILIAN WAY

This article examines the positions held by Brazil under the administration of Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva (2003–present) on nuclear nonproliferation, arms control, and disarmament regimes and on contentious issues in those areas. Under Lula's government, Brazil has wanted to mediate between nuclear weapon and non-nuclear weapon states to consolidate its position as a strong negotiator and to benefit from the possible gains of this position in terms of greater participation in international institutions. It has also wanted to pressure nuclear weapon states to fulfill their disarmament obligations in order to reduce asymmetries in its relations with powerful nuclear weapon countries. At the same time, Brazil has tried to preserve its autonomy and flexibility to protect commercial secrets and preserve national security in relation to its own nuclear program.     

Justice empowered or justice hampered: The International Criminal Court in Darfur

It came as a surprise to many international observers when, on 31 March 2005, the United Nations Security Council passed resolution 1593, which referred the situation in Darfur to the jurisdiction of the International Criminal Court. Some celebrated this event as initiating a new era in which international criminal justice would prevail, but they might have done well to consider the objections immediately raised by the representatives of the Sudanese government, which was not a party to the ICC, a point that created a series of impediments to the implementation of the resolution. For all that the ICC has been charged with investigating crimes against humanity in Darfur, its investigators are being prevented from seeking the evidence on the ground essential to any successful prosecution. The Sudanese government has so far maintained its obstructive position, arguing that it is capable of handling such cases within its own sovereign jurisdiction. The imperative of excluding the ICC from Darfur has contributed to Khartoum's objections to the deployment of a UN force to replace the African Union mission there. In sum: the challenges faced by the ICC in Darfur demonstrate that international criminal justice does not operate in a political vacuum.     

THE REAL STORY BEHIND THE MAKING OF THE FRENCH HYDROGEN BOMB

Based on the first-person account of coauthor Pierre Billaud, a prominent French participant, this article describes for the first time in such detail the history of the development of the French hydrogen bomb in the 1960s and the organization of military nuclear research in France. The authors illustrate the extent to which French defense and governmental authorities did not support research on thermonuclear weapons until 1966. Billaud, a project insider, relates the historical episodes that led to France's successful 1968 thermonuclear test, including the names of the individuals involved and how a timely tip from a foreign source hastened the success of the first H-bomb test.     

进入角约束下的载机变结构远距引导

针对一般导引律在载机远距引导中存在的问题,结合远距引导的需求,设计了远距引导的三维变结构导引律。该导引律具有较强自适应性,可以使载机以期望的进入角接近目标。仿真结果表明,载机在该导引律作用下,能以较小过载,平滑轨迹快速接近机动目标,并保证载机引导结束时占有有利的空中战术态势。     

SDI,NATO, and the Social Composition Function

The strategic defense initiative (SDI) intends to renew the leadership of the USA on the western alliance. The initiative takes place in a period when a summation technology prevails for the aggregation of contributions of NATO allies. We investigate if SDI induces a shift in Hirshleifer’s social composition function. Panel data tests over the period 1970–1990 do not confirm any break toward a best-shot aggregator. SDI does not alter the core of deterrence. It is indeed a public good at the US level but not at the NATO level, where, it is one of the joint products of the alliance. We also investigate the lessons to be drawn for the current debates on ballistic defense.     

贝叶斯网络在潜艇远航隐蔽性评估中的应用

针对潜艇远航中面临探潜兵力种类多、各兵力间相互联系的特点,将基于贝叶斯网络的故障诊断方法引入到潜艇隐蔽性的评估中。假设通过分析某次远航实例后得到节点分布参数,结合建立的潜艇远航暴露贝叶斯网络图,得出相关结论。初步探讨了该方法对潜艇隐蔽性的评估、诊断暴露原因、确定关键探潜兵力等方面的应用价值。     

An (s,q) inventory model with stochastic and interrelated lead times

In this article we introduce a lead time mechanism that allows simultaneous order arrivals. This mechanism ensures that orders never cross each other. For the continuous review (s, q) inventory system with constant demand, we show that the allowance of batch arrivals gives rise to a discontinuous cost function. By exploiting the special structure of this cost function, a search algorithm is derived that yields the optimal order strategy in a reasonable amount of time. The search is restricted to integer order strategies only. We also consider an approximate method of solution that is based on a related model with a continuous cost function. The results obtained by this approximation are, in general, very satisfactory. © 1995 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.     

Evaluating the Spillover Effects of the Colombian Conflict in Ecuador

The Colombian civil war lasted for nearly six decades with approximately 10 percent of its population being displaced over the same period. The implications of this conflict have transgressed international boundaries. Countries such as Ecuador experienced an exodus of victims as well as an increase in the presence of armed groups, along with the proliferation of illegal businesses. Even though the internal social and economic consequences of the Colombian conflict have been documented in the literature, there is yet to be a study addressing these issues from the perspective of impacted neighboring countries. In this work, we contribute to the literature by evaluating whether the influx of asylum seekers and the increasing presence of armed groups in the bordering provinces of Ecuador have lead to an increase in violence among these provinces. We do not find any link between the arrival of asylum seekers and the incidence of violent crimes in the Ecuadorean bordering provinces. Similarly, our results indicate that despite an increase in the presence of armed groups, these regions did not experience an increase in the homicide rates significantly different from the other provinces. The results are robust to various specifications and econometric techniques.     

The selection allocation problem

The Selection Allocation Problem (SAP) is a single period decision problem which involves selecting profit‐maximizing (or cost‐minimizing) activities from various distinct groups, and determining the volume of those activities. The activities in each group are selected subject to the availability of that group's resource, which is provided by either pooling or blending raw inputs from several potential sources. Imbedded in the decision process is the additional task of determining how much raw input is to be allocated to each group to form the resource for that group. Instances of this problem can be found in many different areas, such as in tool selection for flexible manufacturing systems, facility location, and funding for social services. Our goal in this paper is to identify and exploit special structures in the (SAP) and use those structures to develop an efficient solution procedure. © 1999 John Wiley & Sons, Inc. Naval Research Logistics 46: 707–725, 1999