The case of Donald Rumsfeld: leadership traps in national security

Taking its point of departure in Donald Rumsfeld’s second term as US Secretary of Defense (2001–2006), this article analyses the crisis of strategic leadership in Western national security. Three “traps” are identified that explain why Donald Rumsfeld ultimately was a failure as defence secretary and demonstrate the perils of national security governance. These traps are termed the inquisitor trap, the strong leader trap and the delegation trap. It is argued that our understanding of strategic leadership in national security, particularly in defence, can benefit from insights gained from the study of strategic leadership in business. As such, this article engages the recent trend of merging insights from business and military strategy.     

The open shop scheduling problem with a given sequence of jobs on one machine

The paper considers the open shop scheduling problem to minimize the make-span, provided that one of the machines has to process the jobs according to a given sequence. We show that in the preemptive case the problem is polynomially solvable for an arbitrary number of machines. If preemption is not allowed, the problem is NP-hard in the strong sense if the number of machines is variable, and is NP-hard in the ordinary sense in the case of two machines. For the latter case we give a heuristic algorithm that runs in linear time and produces a schedule with the makespan that is at most 5/4 times the optimal value. We also show that the two-machine problem in the nonpreemptive case is solvable in pseudopolynomial time by a dynamic programming algorithm, and that the algorithm can be converted into a fully polynomial approximation scheme. © 1998 John Wiley & Sons, Inc. Naval Research Logistics 45: 705–731, 1998     

Spaghetti: systems thinking and the US Army

In the mid-2000s, the United States Army was embroiled in counterinsurgency missions in Iraq and Afghanistan that required deeper understanding of local social systems. The Army turned to systems thinking and design thinking to model and understand the world, define problems, and develop approaches to strategic and operational challenges. However, the Army’s approach as expressed in publications and doctrine encourages the development of complicated, unsupported, and unfalsifiable hypotheses. The risk is that the Army will act on incorrect assumptions and develop plans that are fragile.     

基于降低运算复杂度的子空间跟踪算法稳健性分析

FDPM和FOOJA是目前两种最为有效的适用于主、次子空间跟踪的方法,属于低复杂度算法。进一步降低算法运算复杂度,对保证算法的实时性具有非常重要的意义。以降低算法运算复杂度为背景,通过对FDPM、FOOJA算法的分析,指出存在两种简化运算量的FDPM1stcol、FOOJA1stcol方法。在有限精度运算条件下,对四种方法的稳定性、数值鲁棒性进行了深入分析和讨论。通过实验仿真,对分析的结论进行了验证。     

装备工作TRD方法论研究

在分析装备工作复杂性特点的基础上,提出了从事装备工作需要树立系统、活动、体系、部队和设计等5个观念,构建了用于装备工作的“任务-规律-设计”方法论,设计了从事装备工作的一般逻辑步骤,讨论了该方法论的特点、运用原则及方法体系,并以装备采购工作中货源选择工作为例,验证了该方法论的实用性。     

DSP实现低信噪比条件下点目标检测与跟踪

针对嵌入式实时图像处理系统中 ,复杂背景低信噪比条件下红外运动点目标检测及跟踪所采用的处理算法 ,包括基于空域低通滤波的多图像平均法和自适应阈值分割法以及基于目标运动时空连续性目标运动轨迹拟合及目标运动轨迹参数预测算法 ,进行基于二维数组组合方式存储结构的算法复杂度估计 ,并将上述算法在TI公司的TMS32 0C6 2 0 1EVM板上进行实时性能评测 ,说明上述算法在基于具有软件流水性能的TMS32 0C6x系列DSP嵌入式实时图像处理系统中实现的可行性。     

星载光学遥感成像系统复杂性分析

为研究星载光学遥感成像系统的复杂性,由复杂系统的基本特征与系统研究的基本原则出发,通过对成像全链路流程的分析,确定光学遥感成像系统的复杂性来源及其表现形式。建立星载光学成像的数学模型,以系统重要参数——调制传递函数为基点,通过正过程建模分析和逆过程测量计算相结合的方式,分析了系统复杂性研究的基本原则,即还原论与整体论相结合、定性与定量相结合的过程。由正、逆过程的对比分析,一方面阐述了系统性能与各个环节参数之间的关系,另一方面又由正则化盲反卷积的方式得到图像中真实的调制传递函数。二者相辅相成,既能通过补偿系统复杂性因素影响提升系统性能,又能进一步指导系统优化设计。     

显示界面复杂目标辨认研究

为了使作战人员更快速地辨认武器系统显示界面目标,研究人对不同复杂程度及大小的目标符号辨认情况,为武器系统显示界面的目标编码设计提供依据。提出目标符号复杂度的定义,建立复杂度计算公式,对符号的复杂程度进行量化。通过测定被试完成搜寻特定目标的时间,建立反应时间和符号复杂度与大小、高复杂度目标数量与大小的线性回归模型。提取被试辨认不同复杂度目标的脑电信号,分析脑负荷。结果表明符号复杂度越低或尺寸越大,目标越容易辨认;当大小一定时,人对复杂度3以下的目标辨认情况较好,对复杂度3以上的目标辨认绩效明显下降;脑负荷随着目标复杂度的增大而增大。结论为武器系统显示界面的符号复杂度应设计在3以下,高复杂度目标符号使用时应合理调整其大小。     

基于复杂性的战场损伤定位流程评价模型研究

损伤定位流程制定的合理与否是衡量一个评估员水平高低的重要指标之一。对损伤定位流程的评价涉及到所用时间、工具、操作的难度等指标都可以用其复杂性来表示,目前鲜有关于损伤定位流程评价的研究,因此提出战场损伤定位流程的复杂性,并借鉴软件工程领域的程序复杂性量化方法——图熵法对其进行量化。经过数据验证,复杂性与评估时间之间存在较好的拟合关系,并用实例说明了模型的应用效果。     

Pricing bridges to cross a river

We consider a pricing problem in directed, uncapacitated networks. Tariffs must be defined by an operator, the leader, for a subset of m arcs, the tariff arcs. Costs of all other arcs in the network are assumed to be given. There are n clients, the followers, and after the tariffs have been determined, the clients route their demands independent of each other on paths with minimal total cost. The problem is to find tariffs that maximize the operator's revenue. Motivated by applications in telecommunication networks, we consider a restricted version of this problem, assuming that each client utilizes at most one of the operator's tariff arcs. The problem is equivalent to pricing bridges that clients can use in order to cross a river. We prove that this problem is APX‐hard. Moreover, we analyze the effect of uniform pricing, proving that it yields both an m approximation and a (1 + lnD)‐approximation. Here, D is upper bounded by the total demand of all clients. In addition, we consider the problem under the additional restriction that the operator must not reject any of the clients. We prove that this problem does not admit approximation algorithms with any reasonable performance guarantee, unless P = NP, and we prove the existence of an n‐approximation algorithm. © 2007 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Naval Research Logistics, 2007