General Dostum and the Mazar i Sharif Campaign: new light on the role of Northern Alliance warlords in Operation Enduring Freedom

This report sheds new light on the CIA and US Special Forces' covert campaign alongside Afghan Northern Alliance leader General Dostum's horse-mounted Uzbeks during 2001's Operation Enduring Freedom. In 2003 and 2005 the author traveled over the Hindu Kush Mountains to the plains of Northern Afghanistan and lived with the legendary Northern Alliance opposition leader General Dostum. His aim was to recreate Dostum's campaign alongside the CIA and Special Forces to seize the holy city of Mazar i Sharif from the Taliban in November 2001. Based on interviews with Dostum and his Uzbek commanders, this article recreates this proxy offensive that saw the Northern Alliance opposition break out of the mountains, seize this shrine town and bring the Taliban house of cards falling down in a matter of weeks. Up until now the indigenous Afghan Uzbeks, who played a crucial role as a ‘boots on the ground’ fighting force for Centcom, have been cast as a mere backdrop for American heroics. Now their side of the story and their links to the mysterious shrine of Mazar i Sharif are for the first time revealed.     

The Amritsar Massacre and the minimum force debate

This article re-examines one of the most infamous incidents in British imperial history: the Amritsar Massacre of 1919, and analyses it within the context of the British Army's minimum force philosophy. The massacre has long been regarded as the most catastrophic failure of minimum force in the history of the British Army. This article reconsiders the arguments over the shooting at Amritsar and the role of Brigadier-General Reginald Dyer, and questions the accepted view that the massacre was such a failure of minimum force. It argues that the circumstances surrounding the massacre must be understood before judging the incident and given these factors it is possible to see it within a minimum force framework.     

高超声速流动计算中LU-SGS隐式算法的应用

在高超声速条件下,对原始LU-SGS格式及其改进方法的收敛速度做了深入的比较分析,目的是进一步更好地将LU-SGS算法用于工程上复杂外形的计算模拟中。二维圆柱,三维钝锥及空天飞机算例的结果表明:对于高超声速粘性流动的计算,粘性项应进行隐式处理;BLU-SGS方法给出的内迭代方式的收敛性优于DP-LUR方法所给出的内迭代方式;LU-SGS算法中雅克比系数矩阵的计算方式对计算量及收敛性影响较大,若采用精确的矩阵形式,则在流动无分离情况下能取得快速收敛的效果,而在含有流动分离的情况,因受稳定性的影响,精确的矩阵形式的收敛表现不及对角近似形式。     

自适应LMS和相关算法在GMI磁传感器信号检测中的应用

在GMI磁传感器的研制中,微弱磁场信号经常淹没于电路固有噪声中。当非晶丝GMI(GiantMagneto-Impedance)磁传感器的输出信噪比小于0dB时,常规的峰值检波方法无法检出传感器信号。针对此问题,提出了一种新的微弱信号(信噪比小于0dB)检测方法,利用LMS自适应滤波算法提取非晶丝GMI磁传感器输出信号的特征参数,将该特征参数与理想参数进行相关运算,并根据相关值的大小来确定信号大小,从而实现对微弱磁信号的测量。仿真结果表明,采用LMS自适应滤波算法和相关分析相结合的方法,对于传感器输出信噪比等于-10dB的微弱信号,根据相关值与外磁场大小的对应关系,仍然可以确定外磁场大小。     

基于跳数的节点安全定位算法研究与分析

通过对无线传感器网络节点安全定位技术的研究和分析,采用基于跳数的节点定位算法思想获取定位参照信息,提出了一种与硬件无关的基于跳数的节点安全定位算法——HOP-GDSL,该算法用设计的信标节点信息传递协议提供包的认证、保护跳数信息,用现有的锚节点检测虫洞攻击.经仿真实验证明,该算法能有效抵抗恶意节点攻击,实现节点正常定位,并对虫洞攻击有较高的检测率.     

Alternatives for defense in the Post‐Soviet World: A guide for economists to the U.S. debate

The defense establishments of all major powers are changing to reflect changes in the foundations of national security strategy and resource allocation. The authors believe economists should play an active role in formulating these changes and offer an orientation to the U.S. debate, presenting three major alternatives: the “Base Force” (Bush Administration), Mr. Aspin's Force “C,” and the “Low” Alternative (Prof. Kaufmann and Dr. Steinbruner). These alternatives are compared using first‐order measures of capabilities, budgets and risk. Budgetary estimates are based on newly‐developed analytical tools.     

Specialization in defence forces

The choice between balanced and specialized defence forces depends on the technology of defence output (e.g. whether a force scope multiplier is present), the existence of scope and scale economies, the platform customization costs and, of course, the level of defence budgets. Minimum force element levels (thresholds), and scale economies facilitate specialization as opposed to scope economies (e.g. platform‐sharing), scale diseconomies and the force scope multiplier (e.g. defence weakest‐link technology). When a balanced force is not optimal, the option value of a non‐optimally maintained force element must also include the opportunity cost arising from suboptimal force elements. Shrinking defence budgets may produce two surprising phenomena. If some force elements are shut down as a result of thresholds, the surviving ones may increase in platform numbers as well as enjoying closer‐to‐most‐desirable platforms. Furthermore, if heritage force elements are shut down within the budget contraction environment, overall defence capability might rise.     

THE EFFECTS ON SOUTH ASIA OF DEEP US NUCLEAR REDUCTIONS

Significant nuclear reductions by the United States can affect other states in one of five ways: by directly altering their strategic calculations and postures; by indirectly altering their strategic calculations and postures by affecting the behavior of third-party states; by undermining formal US deterrence commitments; by eroding the United States's perceived ability to provide “informal” deterrence through the maintenance of an active global presence; and by creating normative pressure for states to emulate US nuclear reductions. Only the erosion of “informal” deterrence is likely to affect South Asia; to the extent that significant US nuclear reductions affect South Asia, then, their impact is likely to be destabilizing.     

基于禁忌算法的无线传感器网络PEGASIS算法改进

为了减少无线传感器网络节点能耗,延长网络生存时间,在PEGASIS算法的基础上,针对PEGASIS算法中节点之间容易产生长链和簇头选择没有考虑节点剩余能量的问题,提出了一种基于禁忌算法的PEGASIS算法改进。建链阶段采用禁忌算法代替原有的贪婪算法,防止了长链的产生,减小了节点传输距离;同时引入基于剩余能量的簇头选择机制,均衡了节点之间的能耗,延长了节点的生存时间。仿真结果表明,改进算法较PEGASIS算法第1个节点的死亡时间延长了约7倍,半数节点的死亡时间也得到了延长,从而提高了整个网络的生存时间。