William and John Pickering and the garniture made for the Prince of Brunswick under their supervision at the Royal ‘Almain’ Armoury at Greenwich, 1610 to 1612

Abstract

The princely garniture ‘commanded’ to be made by Prince Henry Frederick for his cousin, Prince Friedrich Ulrich, later Duke of Brunswick, from the Royal ‘Almain’ Armoury at Greenwich, during the stewardship of the Master Armourer, William Pickering, his son, John, and the men of the Greenwich workshop, is described, illustrated and discussed. Accounts are presented of the lives and work of the Pickerings and the evidence is reviewed for the manufacture of this last decorated garniture of the Greenwich School.     

Military Power: A Reply

This article argues that the prewar planning process for postwar Iraq was plagued by myriad problems, including a dysfunctional interagency process, overly optimistic assumptions, and a lack of contingency planning for alternative outcomes. These problems were compounded by a lack of civilian capacity during the occupation period, which led to a complicated and often uncoordinated relationship with the military authorities who found themselves taking the lead in many reconstruction activities. Taken together, these mistakes meant that US success on the battlefield was merely a prelude to a postwar insurgency whose outcome remains very much in doubt more than three years later.     

GPS L1C信号LDPC译码器设计

GPS现代化中的L1C信号使用了LDPC码,以提高接收机的弱信号接收能力。L1C信号中使用的LDPC码没有循环或准循环结构,这为译码器设计带来了难度。为了降低译码器实现复杂度,在分析L1C信号LDPC码校验矩阵结构的基础上,通过对校验节点分类和改变变量节点更新方法,提出了一种低存储量和简化译码器控制逻辑的低复杂度译码器结构,并通过仿真验证了译码器译码结果的正确性。     

弹丸飞行时间拟合误差对射击诸元误差的影响

分析了基本射表中弹丸飞行时间拟合误差对射击诸元误差的影响,给出了因时间拟合误差引起的射击误差的解析表达,并利用5条典型航路分析了飞行时间拟合误差对射角、射向误差的影响,得出了不同航捷、航高、斜距、目标速度下拟合误差对射击诸元误差的影响关系,从而为确定弹丸飞行时间拟合精度提供依据.     

Convoys to combat Somali piracy

As the world becomes increasingly globalized, interruptions to international trade cannot be permitted. Piracy off the coast of Somalia has hampered international trade in the region and poses significant risks to the sailors required to navigate those waters. Over the past three years the global community has attempted, through a number of different naval tactics, to stop these acts of piracy; however, these tactics have proven ineffective. This article looks at historical precedence and military theory to support the concept of using convoys to protect the thousands of cargo vessels traveling round the Horn of Africa every year. This tactic will greatly decrease the number of successful pirate attacks and save countless lives in the process.     

On the brink: The resurgence of militant Islam in Central Asia

Since Operation Enduring Freedom, Central Asian militants, such as the Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan, have fled to Pakistan from their previous strongholds in Afghanistan. However, many militants have begun returning to Central Asia. Thus questions are raised as to what extent militancy has the potential to thrive with the pending North Atlantic Treaty Organization withdrawal from Afghanistan set for 2014? Is militancy a legitimate security threat to Central Asia? What strategies might militants implement? Thus, this article examines the current state of militancy, analyzes militant trends, introduces Afghanistan and Pakistan into the Central Asian equation, and determines the militants' capability and overall strategy. The article concludes that militant Islam, regardless of its current numbers, remains a viable threat to regional security, Afghanistan will be an essential factor for the future of Central Asian militancy, and the form this re-emergence will take becomes apparent.     

简析政府职能转变之明确性原则——以消防法律文本为视域

政府职能转变是一项浩大、复杂的系统工程,不仅需要正确的方向,也更需要科学的方法.其中,明确性就是一个必须遵守的原则.审视政府消防管理职能50年的文本变迁,对政府职能转变与明确性原则关系进行了现实考察,进而分析明确性原则与政府职能转变关系进路.     

高层建筑安全疏散设计探析

近年来我国高层建筑剧增,承载的人口越来越密集,火灾荷载越来越大,如果安全疏散设计不合理,一旦发生火灾,容易造成严重后果.在分析高层建筑的火灾特点和影响人员安全疏散的因素的基础上,从合理设置安全出口、疏散走道、疏散楼梯、疏散宽度和距离、疏散门、避难层及其他辅助疏散设施、疏散照明灯具等方面探析了高层建筑的安全疏散设计,为避免和减少人员伤亡和财产损失创造条件.     

Insights from a Database of Lashkar-e-Taiba and Hizb-ul-Mujahideen Militants

This article uses a novel database of 1,625 posthumously published biographies of members of two Islamist militant organizations (Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) and Hizb-ul-Mujahideen (HM)), all of whom were killed in the course of carrying out militant attacks. In general, each biography provides data on the militant’s birthplace, education, recruitment, and training. The number of observations in this database is a full order of magnitude larger than those of previous databases assembled from militant biographies. While the sample of militants in this database is the product of multiple selection effects, analysis of the database undermines many common myths about Pakistani militants and casts doubt on current policy approaches to mitigating Islamist militancy in Pakistan.     

Reinterpreting Libya's WMD Turnaround – Bridging the Carrot-Coercion Divide

The dominant explanations of Libya's nuclear reversal in 2003 privilege either coercion or carrots treating these instruments as alternatives. Indoing so they ignore that it took a combination of coercion, carrots and confidence-building to turn Libya around. This article demonstrates this by developing and deploying a theoretical framework that integrates these three instruments into a more coherent and convincing explanation of the case. It highlights that analysts and policy-makers would do well to focus more on how different policy tools can be used in combination to achieve desired outcomes than on how individual tools can be employed with decisive effects. It also demonstrates that the Libya success will be hard to replicate.