Can Governments Negotiate With Insurgents? The Latin American Experience

In June 2016, the Colombian Government and the FARC insurgent movement signed a ceasefire agreement, which brings the two sides one step closer to putting an end to over five decades of war. Unfortunately, Latin America has a rich history of insurgent movements, particularly during the cold war era, some of which continue to operate today. Most of these movements disappeared due to military operations, though some did so via peace negotiations. This essay aims to discuss the various ends of Latin American insurgencies to answer whether, indeed, insurgents can be negotiated with.     

三组元喷嘴混合特性的试验研究

本文对四种类型的气氢／液氧／煤油三组元喷嘴进行了混合特性试验, 研究了内喷嘴的缩进长度对同轴离心外混式喷嘴混合特性的影响, 对比了相同的三组元工况下各喷嘴的混合特性, 分析了喷嘴结构对混合特性的影响, 进行了单喷嘴和三喷嘴的混合特性试验, 试验结果表明： 在相同的三组元工况下, 同轴直流式喷嘴的流强分布跨度比同轴离心式喷嘴小。所得结论对三组元喷嘴和气液同轴式喷嘴的优化设计有参考价值。     

Allocation of two redundancies in two‐component series systems

The allocation of redundancies in a system to optimize the reliability of system performance is an interesting problem in reliability engineering and system security. In this article, we focus on the optimal allocation of two exponentially distributed active (standby) redundancies in a two‐component series system using the tool of stochastic ordering. For the case of active redundancy, stochastic comparisons are carried out in terms of the likelihood ratio and reversed hazard rate orders. For the case of standby redundancy, a likelihood ratio ordering result is developed. The results established here generalize and strengthen corresponding results in the recent literature. In addition, several numerical examples are used to explicate the results. © 2013 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Naval Research Logistics, 2013     

Organizing for the ‘gray zone’ fight: early Cold War realities and the CIA’s Directorate of Operations

ABSTRACT

Despite its portrayal as something new, the concept of the ‘gray zone’ is not novel. It was the Cold War battleground in which the USA and the Soviet Union waged rival unconventional campaigns, and it was there that the newly formed Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) was given responsibility for operating. This was not the organization’s original purpose, but Cold War exigencies forced Washington to improvise and build an organization with unique capabilities. These early years shaped the CIA’s operations directorate, creating two distinct cultures within the larger agency, one focused on intelligence collection and the other focused on covert action.