A decision support system for the procurement of military equipment

The use of life-cycle costs in procurement is limited by the accuracy of cost estimates and assessments of availability risks under the conditions generating costs. Critical to these problems are the needs and responses of equipment to maintenance and repair. Using transition probabilities to define the relationships between serviceability and maintenance and repairs, this article develops a comprehensive decision support system for military procurement. It uses a dynamic programming model to determine the least-cost set of maintenance and repair decisions, where adjustments are included for warranty conditions, time value of money, the opportunity costs of equipment failure, and the end-of-cycle salvage values or disposal costs. The system allows users to define working and failed states, create their own rules or indicators of availability from estimates of state probabilities and establish thresholds of risk acceptability.     

A multi-run interactive method for bicriterion optimization problems

This article introduces a new conceptual and methodological framework for the use of decision makers and their interactions with the computer in bicriterion decision making. The new method, called the multirun interactive method, attempts to estimate the prior of the decision maker on his uncertain preference nature using the minimum cross-entropy principle. A computational study is performed with four hypothesized prior distributions under various interaction conditions. Other important aspects related to the method, such as implementation of the method, decision making under certainty, decision making with multiple decision makers, and bicriterion integer programming, are also discussed.     

Churchill's naval holiday: Arms control and the Anglo‐German naval race, 1912–1914

Brian Johnson, The Secret War. London: BBC, 1978. Pp. 352; £6.50.

R. V. Jones, Most Secret War: British Scientific Intelligence 1939–45. London: Hamish Hamilton, 1978. Pp. xx + 556; £7.95.

Solly Zuckerman, From Apes to Warlords 1904–46. London: Hamish Hamilton, 1978. Pp. 00 (Information not available from publisher); £8.50.

Adrian Preston, ed., General Staffs and Diplomacy before the Second War. London: Croom Helm, 1978. Pp. 138; £5.95.

W. G. F. Jackson. ’Overlord’: Normandy 1944. London: Davis Poynter, 1978. Pp. 250; £6.75.

Richard K. Betts, Soldiers, Statesmen, and Cold War Crises. Cambridge, Mass. and London: Harvard University Press, 1977. Pp. 292 + index + appendices; Np.

Gerard J. Mangone, Marine policy for America—The United States at Sea. Lexington, Mass.: Lexington Books, 1977. Pp. 370, £17.50.

F. M. Richardson, Fighting Spirit. London: Leo Cooper, 1978. Pp. 189 + xv; £7.50.

Allen R. Millet, Ed., A Short History of the Vietnam War. London &; Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1978. Pp. 169; £2.75.

Robert P. Berman, Soviet Airpower in Transition. Washington: Brookings, 1978. Pp. 82; $2.95 (Paper).     

Optimal set partitioning,matchings and lagrangian duality

We formulate the set partitioning problem as a matching problem with simple side constraints. As a result we obtain a Lagrangian relaxation of the set partitioning problem in which the primal problem is a matching problem. To solve the Lagrangian dual we must solve a sequence of matching problems each with different edge-weights. We use the cyclic coordinate method to iterate the multipliers, which implies that successive matching problems differ in only two edge-weights. This enables us to use sensitivity analysis to modify one optimal matching to obtain the next one. We give theoretical and empirical comparisons of these dual bounds with the conventional linear programming ones.     

The multiplicative representation for multiple objectives optimization with an application for arms procurement

Multiple Objectives Optimization is much seen in combination with linear functions and even with linear programming, together with an adding of the objectives by using weights. With distance functions, normalization instead of weights is used. It is also possible that together with an additive direct influence of the objectives on the utility function a mutual utility of the objectives exists under the form of a multiplicative representation. A critical comment is brought on some representations of this kind. A full‐multiplicative form may offer other opportunities, which will be discussed at length in an effort to exclude weights and normalization. This theoretical approach is followed by an application for arms procurement. © 2002 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Naval Research Logistics 49: 327–340, 2002; Published online in Wiley InterScience (www.interscience.wiley.com). DOI 10.1002/nav.10014     

清末不同政治力量对新军的思想控驭及其影响

清政府不仅从新军指挥体系入手强化中央集权,更注重利用思想控驭,加强对官兵"忠君"与"爱清"的教育,力图使新军成为大清王朝的护卫者.当清政府既不能应付外来挑战,又无法处理好国内问题时,许多新军官兵成为激进的民族主义者.这为革命党人在新军中的思想灌输大开方便之门.革命精神和"反满"情绪在大江以南的新军官兵中最为强烈,而北洋新军大部是忠于袁世凯的.这些都对清朝的统治构成致命打击.     

计算机公共课程“体验”式教学初探

为进一步提高计算机公共课课程教学质量,本文从体验的内涵与高校教育的关系出发,从课堂教学和实验教学等方面探讨了体验式教学模式,力图为教学改革和创新提供新思路。     

NEGOTIATING NONPROLIFERATION: Scholarship,Pedagogy, and Nuclear Weapons Policy

In nuclear nonproliferation negotiations, many governments pursue multiple objectives, and changes in policy can occur rapidly—and often unexpectedly. For these reasons, understanding nonproliferation requires empathy and imagination rather than just historical fact. This article considers one teaching tool to encourage such insight—simulations—and demonstrates how teaching and scholarship can interact to improve our understanding of the complex decisions and negotiations involved in nuclear nonproliferation. The article consists of five parts: first, it explains the benefits of simulations as both a policy development tool in Washington and as a teaching tool in universities; second, it describes the pedagogical strategy of the Stanford University simulation program; third, it shows how the simulations have identified and highlighted theoretical and substantive insights that are often neglected in scholarly studies of nonproliferation; and fourth, it describes how students are tested to enhance the learning experience from the simulation. Fifth and finally, the article provides concluding observations about how using simulations in the classroom can help scholars develop insights that improve their understanding of real-world nuclear negotiation dynamics and outcomes.     

Counterinsurgency American style: Considering David Petraeus and twenty-first century irregular war

This article examines the complex legacy of David Petraeus who was a key figure in the emergence of the US military shift towards counterinsurgency doctrine in the years after 2006. Although Petraeus has been perceived by critics as a publicity seeker, he can be credited with laying the foundations for a more serious commitment to COIN involving in particular in integrating conventional and Special Forces in arenas like village stability operations. The article looks a Petraeus's role in both Iraq and Afghanistan: it concludes that, in the case of Afghanistan, it is too early to assess whether counterinsurgency has had a decisive impact of the outcome of the war against the Taliban.