Whither the Iraqi Insurgency: Prospects for Counterinsurgent Success

The 2003 conflict between Iraq and the US-led Coalition resulted in liberation for the country, enabling its citizens to experience freedom they have not had for decades. While the US-led operation was successful, insurgent movements have hindered the reconstruction efforts and the rebuilding of the government in Iraq. The tactics used by these insurgent groups are not that of 'traditional' warfare, therefore the US and Coalition forces adapted their tactics to respond to this new threat. It is argued that with the application of the Manwaring Paradigm (also known as the SWORD Model), the US and Coalition forces successfully responded to the insurgent movements during the period leading up to the Iraqi elections in January 2005.     

A multi‐objective model for bank ATM networks

In this paper we present an application of the core solution concepts for multi‐objective games to a bank ATM network model. In these games, the worth of a coalition is given by a subset of vectors of the k‐dimensional space rather than by a scalar. The paper investigates how an ATM network model based on multi‐objective cooperative game theory could be used as an alternative way of setting interchange fees paid by the customer's bank to the one that owns the ATM. © 2004 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Naval Research Logistics, 2005     

A robust policy for serial agile production systems

One of the major problems in modeling production systems is how to treat the job arrival process. Restrictive assumptions such as Markovian arrivals do not represent real world systems, especially if the arrival process is generated by job departures from upstream workstations. Under these circumstances, cost‐effective policies that are robust with respect to the nature of the arrival process become of interest. In this paper, we focus on minimizing the expected total holding and setup costs in a two‐stage produce‐to‐order production system operated by a cross‐trained worker. We will show that if setup times are insignificant in comparison with processing times, then near‐optimal policies can be generated with very robust performances with respect to the arrival process. We also present conditions under which these near‐optimal policies can be obtained by using only the arrival and service rates. © 2004 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Naval Research Logistics, 2005.     

The Banzhaf value and communication situations

Myerson 3 and 4 proposed and characterized a modification of the Shapley value in the context of communication situations. In this paper we propose several characterizations of the extension of the Banzhaf value proposed by Owen 7 to communication situations. In particular we characterize this value with the properties of fairness, isolation, and pairwise merging. © 2006 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Naval Research Logistics, 2006     

Influence of thickness and projectile shape on penetration resistance of the compliant composite

The present study deals with development of conceptual proof for jute rubber basedflexible composite block to completely arrest the projectile impacting the target at high velocity impact of 400 m/s through numerical simulation approach using finite element (FE) method. The proposed flexible composite blocks of repeating jute/rubber/jute (JRJ) units are modelled with varying thickness from 30 mm to 120 mm in increments of 30 mm and impacted by flat (F), ogival (O) and hemispherical (HS) shaped projectiles. All the considered projectiles are impacted with proposed flexible composite blocks of different thicknesses and the penetration behaviour of the projectile in each case is studied. The penetration depth of the projectile in case of partially penetrated cases are considered and the effect of thickness and projectile shape on percentage of penetration depth is statistically analyzed using Tagu-chi's design of experiments (DOE). Results reveal that the though proposedflexible composite block with thickness of 90 mm is just sufficient to arrest the complete penetration of the projectile, considering the safety issues, it is recommended to use theflexible composite with thickness of 120 mm. The nature of damage caused by the projectile in the flexible composite is also studied. Statistical studies show that thickness of the block plays a prominent role in determining the damage resistance of the flexible composite.     

Mitigation of the blast load effects on a building structure using newly composite structural configurations

In this study, a nonlinear three-dimensional hydrocode numerical simulation was carried out using AUTODYN-3D to investigate the effect of blasting of a high explosive material (TNT) against several configurations of the composite structure. Several numerical models were carried out to study the effect of varying the thickness of the walls and the effect of adding an air layer or aluminum foam layer inside two layers of concrete in mitigating the effect of blast waves on the structure walls. The results showed that increasing the thickness of walls has a good effect on mitigating the effect of blast waves. When a layer of air was added, the effect of blast waves was exaggerated, while when a layer of aluminum foam was added the blast wave effects were mitigated with a reasonable percentage.     

Transit vessel scheduling

A transit vessel traffic scheduling algorithm has been developed to limit the negative effects on cargo volume throughput in two‐way waterways where separation distances between transiting vessels must be maintained and passage restrictions may hold. It runs in time that is polynomial in the number of ships involved in the computation and finds schedules which increase the utilization of waterways. Three examples illustrate its use. The first example is situated in the Sunda Strait where the algorithm is used to enhance the safety of merchant shipping against a terrorist threat. It illustrates important features of the algorithm and demonstrates how it can be used with cross traffic. The second example is situated in the Strait of Istanbul and offers a comparison between the developed algorithm and the transit vessel scheduling algorithm of Ulusçu et al., J Navig 62 (2009), 59–77. This was done using a plausible model of the Strait of Istanbul. The third and last example shows how the algorithm can be used to schedule transit vessel traffic in two‐way waterways with junctions. This feature is especially useful in congested waters with a high risk of collisions like the Inland Sea of Japan. An extreme test case proves that the developed algorithm is a practical algorithm ready for such use. © 2017 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Naval Research Logistics 64: 225–248, 2017     

Legitimacy and the Politics of Recognition in Kosovo

Abstract

How do contemporary secessionist movements gain international recognition of their claims to self-determination? I argue that international recognition is forthcoming when a sufficient number of states believe a claim to self-determination ought to be accepted. That is, states recognize claims to self-determination when they perceive them to be legitimate. To convince outsiders of the legitimacy of their claims, separatist movements invoke resonant norms and symbols in a moral economy that structures decision-making. I contrast this argument with prevailing explanations of recognition dynamics. To illustrate the argument, I examine the diplomacy surrounding Kosovo’s independence bid and unilateral secession.     

Does civil war hamper financial development?

We examine how armed conflict effects financial development in a cross-country setting using dynamic panel data analysis in a panel of 66 developing countries for the period 1985–2010. Financial development is measured by M2 as a share of GDP, and credit allocated to private sector by banks as a share of GDP. Our findings suggest that armed conflict has a significant adverse effect on financial development. Simultaneously, the quality of governance is always highly significant and conducive to the financial development. The quality of governance is more salient in determining financial development compared to low- and medium-intensity armed conflict; however, the quality of governance cannot entirely offset the adverse impact of high-intensity armed conflict on financial development.     

Dynamic programming approaches to the multiple criteria knapsack problem

We study the integer multiple criteria knapsack problem and propose dynamic‐programming‐based approaches to finding all the nondominated solutions. Different and more complex models are discussed, including the binary multiple criteria knapsack problem, problems with more than one constraint, and multiperiod as well as time‐dependent models. © 2000 John Wiley & Sons, Inc. Naval Research Logistics 47: 57–76, 2000